[iDC] Digital Rights Management and Internet2

[Andreas Schiffler]

Trebor Scholz wrote:
> Some reports say that the [Internet2] routers will execute a new generation of
> Digital Rights Management (DRM). 
I just wanted to share a few finds related to "bandwidth management" on 
_todays_ internet. Interestingly enough, Canadas ISPs - which seemed 
relatively bening on the p2p front as compared to the US - are involved 
in some secret "network optimizations". In any respect, I2 deployment 
will likely make it easier and more efficient for all players in the 
Internet infrastructure to "manage" (i.e. filter) traffic flows. But raw 
network filtering is really nothing new and protocol level proxying 
which puts your websurfing through _their_ servers (so filtering and 
logging are just a config-file edit away) is in common use. You can test 
your ISP or university networks for filters and transparent proxying 
with tracetcp: http://tracetcp.sourceforge.net/usage_proxy.html (this 
app is for windows boxes, on Linux or OSX traceroute does the same). A 
survey using these tools on a variety of networks might even be a nice 
lab-project for students.


Limiting P2P

In the p2p arena, providers seem to cap bandwidth usage - on the forums, 
the talk was that the new residential VoIP service was impacted by heavy 
p2p users prompting a filtering of the p2p ports at these providers. 
Since almost all providers worldwide are having some VoIP plan, I expect 
to see this kind of restriction to become very common.

Shaw secretly limits BitTorrent uploads
http://news.fudo.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=15

Rogers Bit Torrent Cat & Mouse
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/71914


Limiting VoIP

Since VoIP is a new cash cow for ISPs and they control their networks, 
filtering the competition out of the datastream seems like a typical 
business trend. We'll have to see what the regulators have to say ... 
especially contentious, since most broadband connections are operated by 
the traditional Telcos which, while regulated heavily, seem to have a 
bigger stake than all to retain voice communication customers at all costs.

Cable Companies: We'll Kill VoIP
http://www.networkingpipeline.com/blog/archives/2006/03/cable_companies.html


Australian ISPs

Australian ISPs seems to keep a keep a layed back approach for now - but 
then a 10G cap is meager pickings (I get a 102G/month cap) which will 
probably not satisfy users in the years to come (its the bandwidth 
needed for a daily 1.5h VoIP call). Plus the p2p police is not far ...
    
Big three ISPs say peer-to-peer OK
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,18213133%5e15306%5e%5enbv%5e15306,00.html

Australian ISP raided in BitTorrent crackdown
http://news.com.com/Australian+ISP+raided+in+BitTorrent+crackdown/2100-1025_3-5608567.html


China's Firewall

Of course we enjoy still a relatively unobstructed dataflow compared to 
other countries. Interestingly enough, I2 might become more irrelevant 
for the bulk of users from China, as this massive country prepares its 
own Internet - likely complete with content filters integrated at every 
edge of the network infrastructure. With that in mind, Google's recent 
debacle on search filtering seems like a reasonable business decision to 
me after all. They face sineo-irrelevancy with a decade in my view anyhow.

Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/china/

China Prepares to Launch Alternate Internet
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/28/1610242


cu
Andreas

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: aschiffler.vcf
Type: text/x-vcard
Size: 135 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/attachments/20060314/ef28407b/aschiffler-0002.vcf