[governance] Re: Comcast Blocks Some Internet Traffic

[Avri Doria]

On 23 okt 2007, at 18.14, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:

> On Mon, Oct 22, 2007 at 07:16:31PM -0400,
>  Milton L Mueller <mueller at syr.edu> wrote
>  a message of 39 lines which said:
>
>> Is the diffserv protocol of the IETF, a violation of net neutrality?
>> Is any use of QoS inherently bad?
>
> The diffserv protocol is a _tool_. As most tools, it can be used for a
> lot of different things, some being bad. If its purpose is to reduce
> my SIP bandwidth because my provider finds it endangers its selling of
> traditional telephone services, yes, it is a violation of net
> neutrality.
>


i agree.  especially because I expect you are buying best-effort  
service, which has a well known meaning and expectation.

what happens i wonder if they start to sell a cheaper level of  
service that includes the right for them to limit traffic they  
consider detrimental to the business model (though of course it would  
be put in a much smoother form of marketese).  would this be ok? or  
would it be an infringement of some internet principle?

it is a question i have wavered on:

- sometimes i think they have a right to sell me anything and if i am  
stupid  enough to buy, my loss.

- sometime i think that they don't have a right to sell me poison  
just because i am too poor to buy the real Internet.

a.
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