Censorship in the Router
The ultimate aim of the RIAA/MPAA anti-piracy lobby is to prevent the illegal copying of their content - you can see their point - but their methods aren't winning them any friends right now.
The problem is that they want to demonise file sharing of any kind - and not all P2P file sharers are copyright violation thieves - some of us just want to share files and try really, really, hard not to break the law.
But the announcement of this product makes the idea of including censorship in the router a reality
Allot Communications, a company specializing in "intelligent IP service optimization solutions" has unveiled the newest feature built into its NetEnforcer device. The device is now capable of detecting encrypted BitTorrent traffic. ISPs using the NetEnforcer will now be able to throttle BitTorrent traffic more efficiently.As P2PNet observes, many ISPs recently began shaping their network traffic to keep BitTorrent users from sucking up all of the available bandwidth -- in some cases, BitTorrent accounts for half of an ISP's traffic. However, BT users were quick to work around the ISP's detection schemes by using RC4 encryption. All of the major BitTorrent clients recently added the option to encode transfer files using RC4 encryption.
The NetEnforcer uses Allot's deep packet inspection technology "to identify and analyze hundreds of applications and protocols, track subscriber behavior, prioritize traffic and shape traffic flows.
Brilliant!!
Now everybody who uses torrents to mirror innocent FOSS software or legal CC torrents are going to be penalised too.
The use of bandwidth throttling via protocols is nothing more than a form of censorship.
Sure some people use bit-torrent to share illegal files - but a lot of us don't - we want to respect the law and also share legal content.
Why should we be penalised because we use a bandwidth efficient P2P protocol to share legal content?
Why should my ISP - who I pay $$$ to monthly restrict my use of certain protocols to share legal music, video and software - when I have contracted for unlimited bandwidth for a month?
Forget FOSS and Creative Copyright - with the introduction of censorware hardware products like these, when the industry is restricting and prohibiting protocols on the grounds that some people might abuse them -then we really have reached a situation where censorship is in the router
Tags: censorware, censorship, piracy, copyright violation, riaa, mpaa, internet censorship, free speech, creative copyright, legal torrents, bittorrent