Slashdot Mirror
uTorrent To Build In Transfer-Throttling Ability
vintagepc writes "TorrentFreak reports that a redesign of the popular BitTorrent client uTorrent allows clients to detect network congestion and automatically adjust the transfer rates, eliminating the interference with other Internet-enabled applications' traffic. In theory, the protocol senses congestion based on the time it takes for a packet to reach its destination, and by intelligent adjustments, should reduce network traffic without causing a major impact on download speeds and times. As said by Simon Morris (from TFA), 'The throttling that matters most is actually not so much the download but rather the upload – as bandwidth is normally much lower UP than DOWN, the up-link will almost always get congested before the down-link does.' Furthermore, the revision is designed to eliminate the need for ISPs to deal with problems caused by excessive BitTorrent traffic on their networks, thereby saving them money and support costs. Apparently, the v2.0b client using this protocol is already being used widely, and no major problems have been reported."
Why would anyone support this kind of behavior?
Because I do not want to make to job of MAFIAA any easier.
You do realise that the RIAA and the MPAA represent Recording Artists and Movie Producers, respectively, right?
Neither group are ISPs. Neither invest billions into internet infrastructure.
If peer-to-peer users would just play nice and use the ISP infrastructure efficiently, then maybe the ISPs wouldn't be so inclined to side with the content producers.
You might even find that if digital content distribution is done right, then the ISPs might start to push for laws similar to the "copyright tax" on writeable media to allow their users to legally download content.