Cached Torrents and Network Neutrality

Written by Ernesto on May 29, 2006 

BitTorrent is working on a new and improved version that will incorporate superseeding by cachelogics servers. This means that the content will be copied to cachelogic servers to dramatically increase the download speeds.
Currently, “regular” BitTorrent is traffic is suffering from throttling ISP’s that claim that BitTorrent traffic is cluttering their pipes. However, this new [...]

BitTorrent is working on a new and improved version that will incorporate superseeding by cachelogics servers. This means that the content will be copied to cachelogic servers to dramatically increase the download speeds.

Currently, “regular” BitTorrent is traffic is suffering from throttling ISP’s that claim that BitTorrent traffic is cluttering their pipes. However, this new and improved version is promising the opposite, downloads will be accelerated instead of throttled. However, only for commercially licensed content.

But how does this affect the widely debated “network neutrality”?

BBC’s Newsnight asked Bram Cohen, the founder of BitTorrent about this.

“I most definitely do not want the internet to become like television where there’s actual censorship… however it is very difficult to actually create network neutrality laws which don’t result in an absurdity like making it so that ISPs can’t drop spam or stop… (hacker) attacks. ”

Does the Cachelogic proposal violate network neutrality? “Depending on how you define net neutrality that violates some definitions of it,” says Cohen.

And would he feel comfortable if a media company using BitTorrent did start seeking network priority for its data?

“It depends really on the nature of the whole thing… I’m against net censorship. However when you’re talking about large file transfers going to very large numbers of people there frequently are significant costs involved… (the media companies) are frequently bearing a lot of costs already today. They make some stuff available and pay for bandwidth on it so it’s just a question of the download costs as well as the upload costs.”

hmmm…

read on

Previously: MPAA Hacks Torrentspy

Next: BitTorrent Goes China

9 Responses

1 May 30, 2006 at 09:54 by jo

bram can suck my dick

2 May 30, 2006 at 18:55 by ghoti06

So eloquent, JO. If all net “neutrality” supporters can marshal arguments as effectively as you, then the telecom companies are screwed for sure!

In all seriousness, Bram makes some good points. Not only is regulation not needed here, it would probably do more harm than good. More people need to say it.

3 May 31, 2006 at 01:19 by SoCal619

I agree that regulation is not needed…what’s the Government’s track record on solving problems? Ha! I could understand the clamour for regulation if there were terrible greivances that needed to be righted but what’s the real problem? Whiney corporations? Should Moby help dictate our Government’s policy on the internet?

4 May 31, 2006 at 01:33 by Net Chick

I still havent figured out why Moby and REM are supporting net neut. What’s in it for them? Is Google paying them? It seems they came out of the woodwork to fight for a problem thats not even a problem yet.

5 May 31, 2006 at 03:39 by keepitfree

I think, as someone who opposes censorship, Bram is (understandably) concerned about having the government decide how the Internet should run. He makes an interesting point about hacker attacks. I’m curious as to what impact net neutrality legislation would have on the ability to block hackers?

6 May 31, 2006 at 18:37 by NYC

Aren’t consumers already protected by current FCC regulations and the market?!

7 Jun 01, 2006 at 00:15 by Dr. Witson

Yes, NYC, current FCC directives do support Net Neutrality as it has traditionally been defined. In the only known case in which a complaint was lodged, the FCC acted to prevent a small ISP from blocking its customers’ use of VOIP. Case open, fine imposed, case closed. Everybody got the idea and there have been no additional violations.

8 Jun 07, 2006 at 14:30 by RB

It seems like Congress wants to mess with something else that is doing fine. They already protect us, as mentioned above. They freedom of the internet has made it so successful; it will surely be stifled when they get involved.

9 Feb 28, 2007 at 07:11 by Access

I Hope This Torrent thing get fixed Soon I hate having Rogers cable and not being able to download at the speeds i pay for….

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