________ technical excuse for this restriction is that the provider doesn't have
________ enough capacity for all customers to use streaming video at the same
________ time. But cable companies have a conflict of interest -- they are re-
________ stricting a service that will someday directly compete with cable TV.

________ 2. Server restrictions. While advertising the benefits of being "always
________ on" the Internet, some providers impose an "acceptable use" con-
________ tract that forbids customers from operating an Internet service, such
________ as a Web site. The technical excuse is that Web sites tend to attract
________ lots of traffic, and the provider doesn't have enough capacity. But
________ again the access provider has a conflict of interest, because it also of-
________ fers a Web site hosting service... (Some providers have adopted a
________ more subtle approach: they refuse to assign a stable Internet address
________ to home computers, thereby making it hard for the customer to offer
________ an Internet service that others can reliably find. And some access
________ providers have placed an artificial bottleneck on outbound data rates
________ to discourage people from running Internet services.)

________ 3. Fixed backbone choice. Access providers choose where they attach
________ to a long distance carrier for the Internet, known as a "backbone
________ provider." The route to the backbone provider and the choice of the
________ backbone provider are important decisions, bundled with the access
________ service...

________ 4. Filtering. Data is carried on the Internet in batches called packets,
________ and every Internet packet contains an identifier that gives a rough in-
________ dication of what this packet is for: e-mail, a Web page, a name
________ lookup, a remote login, or file sharing. Several access providers have
________ begun to examine every packet that they carry, and discard those
________ with certain purposes, particularly those used for file sharing. The
________ technical excuse for this filtering is that many users don't realize that
________ their computer allows sharing of files, and filtering prevents other
________ customers from misusing that feature. But some access providers
________ have imposed filtering on every customer, including those who want
________ to share files... And again, there can be a conflict of interest -- the
________ access provider has an incentive to find a technical or political ex-
________ cuse to filter out services that compete with the entertainment or
________ Internet services it also offers.

________ 5. No home network. An increasing number of homes have two or
________ more computers interconnected by a home network, and as time

[[157]]

p156 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p157w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p158

v?