Will BitTorrent's Paid 'Fast Lane' Violate 'Net Neutrality'? (torrentfreak.com)

BitTorrent and TRON have an ambitious plan to improve the BitTorrent protocol. Not only will users be financially rewarded for seeding, but they can also pay for faster access. While this may sound good to some, we wonder how this rhymes with BitTorrent's fight for Net Neutrality and its advocacy against paid prioritization. From a report: We ask this question because BitTorrent has been a fierce proponent of an open Internet. It has been a frontrunner in advocating for Net Neutrality, repeatedly criticizing paid traffic prioritization and so-called "fast lanes." BitTorrent went as far as creating the dedicated "internetbetter" website, avenging FCC's plans to meddle with the 'Open Internet,' advertising its campaign on a massive billboard. "The FCC's proposed changes to Net Neutrality would create a preferential fast lane for designated traffic," BitTorrent wrote at the time. "Those with the deep pockets to pay for this fast lane will have the ability to access and distribute content at higher speeds. Those who lack the purchasing power will be disadvantaged. This moves us towards an Internet of discrimination." These efforts didn't prevent the Net Neutrality rules from being repealed in the US, but it appears that BitTorrent's own plans may not be in line with an 'open' Internet either.

Comments

There’s nothing wrong with it.

[Hallux-F-Sinister]

Bittorrent isn’t the provider, they're the end-point. It would be different if they were the ISP. (They haven’t become an ISP, have they?) In the highway scenario, where Comcast and AT&T and all are providers of the highway, Bittorrent is the drive-in movie theater... actually that’s not even right. More like they’re a search engine for where little bits of data are located around the interwebs. It’s a bit closer to them being providers but... they’re only providing “where it is” data, not the means to CONVEY that data...

Now that I’ve written this, I’m suddenly not feeling as certain Bittorrent is in the right on this. Hmmm...

Re:There’s nothing wrong with it.

[sosume]

They are free to fork the protocol and introduce this as an alternative. Let's see how much adoption it will get - law enforcement will love that sharing a movie will now provide a financial incentive, as that will make it a crime instead of a violation.

If they pay people for seeding

[rsilvergun]

and they seed pirated content they're going to be eaten alive in court by the RIAA & MPAA.

Written by the MPAA/RIAA?

[Dunbal]

Not only will users be financially rewarded for seeding

Oh great - I bet Hollywood lawyers are salivating at this. There are many countries in the world where downloads and uploads are no big deal and not criminal - so long as there's no commercial gain from it. "Financially rewarding" people for uploads will criminalize a whole group who currently are not breaking the law.