Why The ISP's Love Bandwidth Caps, And Everyone Else Hates Them
It's a completely interesting proposition, and a brilliant move on the ISP's part (in an absolutely Machiavellian fashion): the ISP's will likely be using bandwidth caps to profit from pirated content. I know, I'm not one to run around with my tin hat on, but when I start to think about it, what is the base reasoning for ISP bandwidth caps?
The ISP's have been doing this song and dance concerning their networks being clogged by P2P-ers. Claims that P2P-ers take up the large majority of bandwidth out there seems to be skewed, as most of those figures include sites like You Tube, even though they are true on the whole. But if that's how we choose to use the product, shouldn't the ISP's adapt to our usage?
Instead, ISP's have tried to find any way around strengthening their networks to support today's demands. Groups like the RIAA and the MPAA would like to see content filtering on the ISP level implemented nationwide in the States, which if effective, would probably drastically reduce the amount of P2P out there. Let's face it, most P2P traffic is less-than-legal, and hindering the spread of that traffic might help. While the idea of content filtering, and the unintended consequences that go along with it, is a wholly different debate, it is still a piece of the puzzle.
From there though, we've managed to drift into the bandwidth cap as the solution. No one, in or out of the tech world, likes this idea. Except, of course, the ISP's. Bandwidth caps do not solve any problems for the networks or the content holders or the consumers. What they do instead is provide a way for ISP's to profit from P2P traffic. Those who want to keep pirating whatever it is their heart desires can still do so, ripping off various rights holders in the process, but they'll have to pay more for the privilege of it. And if they exceed the arbitrary cap? They pay more. To the ISP. Who will not share that money with the content rights holders.
While I know we need to find a way to improve our networks so that they are more effective for everyone, I can't help but thinking that the responsibility falls back to the ISP to improve their network, not the consumer to use it less.
Jesse James
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 7 July 2008
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: bandwidth restriction, Content filtering, ISP, opinion
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That cap bandwidth idea is such crap imop. I currently have comcast and Their service is already not reliable so if they implemented this I would def. jump to a diff. provider that offers a possibly less amount of speed over comcasts' throttle. What's the bound of having broad band if you limited on your use? I'd be like going back to AOL's minute use back in the day. Or do they still do that?
Thank you