In the past few years we have watched p2p file sharing take larger and larger portions of our internet backbone bandwidth and because of that some ISPs have tried to implement traffic shaping and blocking.

Most P2P traffic is illegal file sharing with the highest percentage being movies and software. These files can be large and when many people are sharing the traffic can become extreme.

With the need to use P2P for Operating system distributions such as Linux CentOs and some other companies use it for legal distribution of products the P2P networks can have some value but … lets be honest here that use is very small.

On the other hand Verizon sought to block all VOIP services on their network which is probably a violation of commerce law.

Comcast is trying to buy NBC so they can get their hands on HULU.com and force viewers to pay for the service which is cutting into their own paid offerings.

For the honesty of the idea we have to put aside any debate on whether it is legal to distribute music, videos, games or other copyright protected products on P2P because even people who are zellots will eventually come to the premise that distribution of those products is often illegal and if not on a razors edge of how a producer of products should be treated when they sink their life into making these things…  … People need to eat..

THE BIG QUESTION

If net neutrality was pushed to its fullest extent then there would be no limits on how people could use their home connections which today can be as fast as previous dialup providers had for their whole network.

Should users be allowed to host from home?

Should it be allowable to run open relay mail servers?

What about FTP and News Servers?

And of course what about running your own website from home…

Zealots would say if you are paying for the bandwidth you should be able to use it as you see fit and there is some relevance to their argument BUT do we really need more spammers?

Do we need News Servers or FTP sites that will get loaded with tons of crap that I don’t even want to begin to think about…

and …

What will happen to all the Internet Hosting providers if people can now host websites at home?

Personally I would not mind saving $8 a month on my hosting if I could do it as easy at home but along with my hosting package comes technicians that have to deal with things like network filtering of DOS attacks.

If people start hosting at home and websites start getting dos’ed that will mean a lot more bandwidth problems for ISPs

If Net Neutrality is passed and it is a Federal Right to host from home will ISPs be able to shutdown accounts that cause all of these and many more problems.

It is a tough call because I am  one person that is about saving money so I really wouldn’t mind dropping my old computer on my cable router and hosting for myself and maybe others.

On the other hand do I want the idiot down the street doing it if they are going to endup attracting jerks that flood my local hybrid fiber cable node and limit my ability to watch shows on Hulu or talk to my friends online.

You have to remember that these rules were put in place by ISPs for the reason of Abuse.

And the world is not this pretty shiny loving Libertarian ideal where we should allow every thing to be legal just because some people believe everyone will act responsible.

So Lets Be Honest

Do you want the asshole down the street causing problems for you just because they want to share illegal software or provide open relay mail bomb services?

It will happen.

And another thing … I know some people behind this and they are Hard Core Libertarians and they are in the Core Linux Development Teams.

Enough is enough with the shit already…. sure you are going to find a lot of support behind this movement because people want to get free movies and software and don’t give a crap about others who just want to live their lives…

Banning VOIP is wrong but Comcast is going to buy into Hulu and Net Neutrality has nothing to do with the fact that all TV will eventually have a subscription cost because cable and satellite providers are losing money when you can watch a Video On Demand from comcast for $3 or for free with ads on Hulu.

There has to be something reasonable to solve this without opening our networks to all the crap that will happen.

This idea needs much more thought and a reasonable solution.

So is McCain Right? … Probably not but then again who is right in this debate.