NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: P2P resource taking (was Re: pcap files of the Comcast forgeries?)
I reported on this some time back but it looks like it's still in the hopper: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Piracy-Filters-Tread-Dangerous-Ground-89255 and here we have a person claiming to be a doctor who found P2P extremely useful for moving large brain scan images, and ended up on the short end of P2P "traffic shaping" -- it's a long thread but interesting: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19488574-How-traffic-shaping-will-negatively-impact-neuroscience OK, back to Brett: > Now, some shady character approaches you and offers you something > of value (money, software, pirated music or movies, or what have > you) to smuggle food out of the buffet to 20, 30, maybe even > hundreds of waiting comrades. He even provides you with a way of > getting the food out of the restaurant. > If I, the owner, see this scam going on, I'm 100% within my rights to stop you. > This is exactly analogous what's happening with Kazaa, Gnutella, > BitTorrent, etc. ... Hmmm. Well, as long as we're using the buffet analogy, how about this one: A satisfied customer of the buffet posts a message to a buffet-fans mailing list, and suddenly the buffet owner is faced with crowds of "heavy" eaters, who tend to eat much more than the average customer, but are not violating any rules of the buffet by eating as much as they do. Rather than put a specific announced limit on the amount anyone can eat -- or raising prices -- the buffet owner watches people eat and when he personally believes someone has eaten too much, starts to harrass that person so that they won't keep going back for more food. What would ISPs do, I wonder, if large numbers of people set up their own virtual networks using continuous or semi-continuous stream ciphers? Continuous ciphers are systems (traditionally popular in government and military circles) that send continuous encrypted data whether there is meaningful content at that moment or not. The purpose is to deny the adversary both meaningful traffic analysis and content. I'm not recommending this course of action, but to the extent that ISPs behave like overbooking airlines that promise seats and then don't deliver, resourceful users are going to move increasingly to encryption wherever possible. It *will* happen. The only question is how quickly this transition will occur, and to a significant extent ISPs can influence this by their own actions. --Lauren-- NNSquad Moderator