Comments on the definition of the Internet and the importance of ...

We mention here a few of the applications/services/protocols which run
on the Net: email, the World Wide Web, various voips, various vpns,
ssh, usenet, rsync, cvs, apt-get, BitTorrent, ntp, ostiary, etc.. The
IANA list of ports shows just how many services have been invented
and, in measure, widely adopted. Of course, one also has services and
protocols which are unlikely ever to be widely adopted. For example,
Ed Felten and Alex Halderman's TinyP2P, which may be found at
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/tinyp2p.html
was written to demonstrate how easy it is to write a "P2P file
sharing" program. The program is less than one page of Python. This
program demonstrates something larger and more important: it shows us
the freedom and power of the Net. The program works, and perhaps some
folks are using it today. But clearly the Duopoly is not today
offering "Felten-Halderman TinyP2P" service. Nor does the Duopoly
today have the practical means, nor the legal right, to suppress
a. the writing of the program
b. distribution of the program
c. installation of the program
d. use of the program
Well, my claim as to lack of legal right, is unfortunately, not
entirely right today. If the Duopoly is providing signal transport at
high speed for delivery of Net packet streams, then indeed the Duopoly
might today have the legal power to suppress use of the program, due
to the FCC's denomination of certain higher speed signal transports as
"information services". Signal transport is not an "information
service".
Recommendation: Before considering any action on Network Neutrality
the FTC should hold another workshop to help the FTC grasp what the
Net is today. Necessarily this workshop will require some examination
of the history of the Net. The Internet Society should be invited to
partcipate at this workshop, and some designers of the Net we have
today should be invited to speak.
Recommended Reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_protocol_suite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Engineering_Task_Force
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Society
As usual with the Wikipedia, these articles may be unreliable, because
vandals, pranksters, and interested parties, might have modified the
articles. But when I looked a couple of days ago, as far as things I
know are concerned, the articles were good.