[IP] When "free" is no longer free

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne@warpspeed.com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: August 1, 2008 9:12:53 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy@warpspeed.com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] When "free" is no longer free

WHEN "FREE" IS NO LONGER FREE

With its pending decision to censure Comcast over its network- 
management practices, the Federal Communications Commission could be  
planting the seed for an interesting natural experiment on the  
economics of "piracy". On Comcast's earnings call COO Steven Burke  
said the company "disagrees" with the apparent decision but added,  
"we're going to adjust our network management techniques to go to a  
bit more of a consumption-based model." In other words, charging by  
the bit, as Time Warner Cable is now testing in a few markets. While  
Time Warner launched its tiered-pricing test on its own initiative,  
heightened scrutiny of ISPs' network-management practices by the FCC  
could turn the Time Warner test into a trend, as Burke's comment  
suggests. One effect of that trend would be to pass some of the  
bandwidth costs associated with P2P file-sharing on to those who are  
actually engaging in it, whether legally or illegally. The upshot  
could be the "free" is no longer so free. "Piracy" would start to have  
a price (of sorts).

[ and competition to Video on Demand will vanish djf]

<http://www.contentagenda.com/blog/1500000150/post/580030858.html>

Courtesy of the Benton Foundation <http://www.benton.org>
RSS Feed: <http://www.warpspeed.com/wordpress>




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