Download - Future of the Internet – And how to stop it.

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spond. Services like FON now provide a simple box that people can hook up to
their broadband Internet connection, allowing other FON users to share the
connection for free when within range, and nonmembers to pay for access to
the FON network. 15 Those acquiring FON boxes can in turn use others’ FON
connections when they are on the road. Alternatively, FON users can elect to
have their FON box request a small payment from strangers who want to share
the connection, and the payment is split between FON and the box owner.
Most ISPs have not decided whether such uses are a threat and therefore have
not taken action against them, even as the ISPs still have contractual terms that
forbid such unauthorized use, 16 and some have lobbied for theft-of-service
laws that would appear to criminalize both sharing Internet connections and
accepting invitations to share. 17 For ISPs, customers’ ability to share their service
could increase the demand for it since customers could themselves profit
from use by strangers. But this would also increase the amount of bandwidth
used on the ill-measured “all you can eat” access plans that currently depend on
far less than constant usage to break even. 18 Some advocates have tried to steer
a middle course by advocating a “truth in advertising” approach to network
neutrality: broadband providers can shape their services however they want, so
long as they do not call it “Internet” if it does not meet some definition of neutrality.
19 This seems a toothless remedy if one believes there is a problem, for
network providers inclined to shape their services could simply call it “broadband”
instead.
The procrastination principle has left these issues open, and so far generativity
is alive and well at the network level. So what can generativity contribute to
this debate One lesson is that the endpoints matter at least as much as the network.
If network providers try to be more constraining about what traffic they
allow on their networks, software can and will be written to evade such restrictions—so
long as generative PCs remain common on which to install that software.
We see exactly this trend in network environments whose users are not
the network’s paying customers. When employers, libraries, or schools provide
network access and attempt to limit its uses, clever PC software can generally
get around the limitations so long as general Web surfing is permitted, using
exactly the tools available to someone in China or Saudi Arabia who wants to
circumvent national filtering. 20 Even in some of the worst cases of network
traffic shaping by ISPs, the generative PC provides a workaround. Just as Skype
is designed to get around the unintended blockages put in place by some home
network routers, 21 it would not be a far leap for Linksys or FON to produce
home boxes designed expressly to get around unwanted violations of network