openness in either case? Or should it consistently demand openness where
closed systems reign?

Well, let's first be clear about what's at stake. Recall what end-to-end en-
sured: that the network would remain simple, and that it would be un-
able to discriminate against content or applications it didn't like, so that
innovations -- including those the network didn't like -- would be possible
on this network. That value is threatened if end-to-end _on_the_Internet_ is
compromised -- either technically, by building control into the network (in
ways that will become clear later on), or effectively, by layering onto the net-
work rules or requirements that replicate this control. Whatever other
closed and proprietary networks there might be, polluting the Internet with
these systems of control is a certain way to undermine the innovation it in-
spires.

This is precisely what is happening on the cable networks right now.
While the networks are being architected to be technically consistent with
the principle of end-to-end, by requiring that everyone who gets access to
cable do so through a small number of controlled ISPs, the cable compa-
nies will reserve to themselves the power to control what access they get --
in particular, the power to decide whether some content will be favored
over other content, whether some sites surf faster, and whether certain kinds
of applications are permitted.[10-18]

And on the assumption that this control will be allowed, technology firms
such as Cisco are developing technologies to enable this control. Rather
than a neutral, nondiscriminatory Internet, they are deploying technologies
to enable the "walled garden" Internet. The network is built to prefer con-
tent and applications within the garden; access to content and applications
outside the garden is "disfavored." "Policy-based routing" replaces the
neutral "best efforts" rule. The content favored by the policy becomes the
content that flows most easily.[10-19]

Already cable has exercised this power to decide which kinds of applica-
tions should be permitted and which kinds not. As Jerome Saltzer, one of
the coauthors of the "end-to-end" argument, describes, cable networks have
already begun to be gatekeepers on the Net. As he writes:

____ Here are five examples of gatekeeping that have been reported by Internet
____ customers of cable companies:

________ 1. Video limits. Some access providers limit the number of minutes
________ that a customer may use a "streaming video" connection... The

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