[ale] OT: Craig Newmark of Craig's List on Net Neutrality

[Jim Popovitch]

David Corbin wrote:
> On Tuesday 20 June 2006 11:06 pm, Jim Popovitch wrote:
>> Net Neutrality is a *new* thing, it isn't even in existence yet, it is
>> still in a conceptual stage.  At it's core is a design to stifle
>> competition and prevent businesses from leveraging their own capital
>> investments, customer base, and share holder desires.  It is
>> anti-Capitalism.
> 
> Net Neutrality is new term, but it is not a new thing.  It is how the internet 
> has functioned for ~30 years.  All packets are created equal.

Google for "peering" and you will see that hasn't really been the case 
except in thought and idealism.  Perhaps it was back in the NFS and 
DARPA days, but not post 1995.   There is a long littered list of 
companies shutting off or slowing down inbound and outbound traffic from 
competitors, abusers, etc., even good-faith people have been null routed 
in the past.

The only difference today, from in the past, is that next year's 
Internet will obviously require fatter pipes.  Who should incur the cost 
for implementing those bigger, wider, fatter pipes?  You, or the people 
leading you down that road?

To me "Net Neutrality" implies shared bandwidth AND shared cost.  Be 
careful of what you wish for. ;-)

-Jim P.