Today Wired magazine published a well-written history of non-egalitarian commercial practices on the Internet, it even mentions the spat between Level 3 and Cogent that made headlines last year. Unfortunately none of the solutions discussed in the article call for deregulation. At the same time, the author does not try to white wash the issue in favor of either stakeholder involved with net neutrality.
Interestingly enough, back when cable modems were first being rolled out onto the scene, some of my friends set up IRC and ftp servers. In fact, they even set up dedicated game servers to host Doom and Quake matches. Their party was crashed however, as several months later they began to receive “cease and desist” orders; they were apparently using up “too much bandwidth” — more than what the fine print said they were allocated. And this song and dance has been replayed all over the country, time and again.
And limits of “unlimited” services are seen in other industries as well. To the chagrin of its power users, Netflix was shown to be throttling “unlimited” rentals earlier this year. Where is the call to arms for a nationalized Movie Rental Neutrality policy? Where are the petitions to prevent Hollywood and Blockbuster video from charging higher rates than Netflix… after all, the DVD’s are all the same, right? And what about those lonely independent kiosks found in grocery stores?
Anyone else remember the episode where Homer Simpson did not get all that he could eat from the Frying Dutchman, the seafood restaurant?