The nation of Qatar has already started cracking down on what it calls "illegal VoIP" (Voice over IP) and there are signs that this trend is spreading as some U.S. carriers have already attempted to block voice traffic, citing it as unfair competition. I personally don't see what's unfair about using technological innovation to provide the same service at a lower cost, but then I have maintained that the global business ennvironment has long since ceased to be based on the principle of free competititon and now relies on cartel, copyright, patent and trade legislation to support otherwise unprofitable business methods. So I support EDUCAUSE in its statement of concern and echo its opinion that "When broadband providers succumb to the temptation to block Internet packets at the network layer in order to avoid competition at the application layer, this subverts the open, modularized structure of the Internet and undermines both the ability of [people] to communicate with one another and the ability of the educational community to perform its mission." More from Garret Sern, Om Malik, Advance IP Pipeline, Robert X. Cringely, Boris Mann, Technology Liberation Front, Information Week...
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