Mark Cuban Calls on ISPs to Block P2P

boaz112358 writes "Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner, HDNet CEO, and noted gadfly is publishing on his blog that Comcast and other ISPs should block all P2P traffic, because as he says, "As a consumer, I want my internet experience to be as fast as possible. The last thing I want slowing my internet service down are P2P freeloaders." He complains that commercial content distributors instead of paying for their own bandwidth, are leeching off consumers who are paying for the bandwidth. As an alternative distribution method (at least for audio and video), he suggests Google video."

Depends on the country...

[femto]

Here in Australia most plans are for so many bits each month. They are my bits as I paid for them. If I choose to use the 480Gbits I have purchased from my ISP for running a P2P protocol that's my business, not Cuban's, my ISP's or anybody else's.

Re:Freeloaders?

[Enoxice]

Ummm... Mark Cuban [wikipedia.org] != Mark Shuttleworth [wikipedia.org]

Just FYI.

My ISP

[endemoniada]

My ISP (here in Sweden) has this to say about P2P:

P2P-nätverk
Vi har inga synpunkter på att du använder abonnemanget för fildelning via P2P-nätverk. Våra tjänster fungerar mycket bra för detta. Om du laddar från andra datorer som också finns i Bredband2:s nät får du maximal prestanda. Om du vill kan du använda förkortningen [BB2] för att visa att du sitter i Bredband2:s nät. Tänk på upphovsrättslagen när du tar del av andras filer och själv delar ut.

(in english):

P2P Networks
We have no objections to you using your connection to share files over P2P networks. Our services work very well for this. If you connect to other computers that are also in the Bredband2 network you will get maximum performance. If you like, you can use the prefix [BB2] to show others that you are using the Bredband2 network. Please respect copyright laws when you download and share your files.

And it's dirt cheap too. 100mbit both directions, full duplex for 200SEK a month, or ~$15.

Why yes, I AM a bastard :D

He's right in his complaint, but wrong conclusion

[Opportunist]

Yes, the complaint is valid. I do want to get the bandwidth I pay for. But guess what? So does everyone else too. Whether you're streaming porn from xtube or sharing P2P, everyone has the damn same right to use the bandwidth.

What's wrong here is that ISPs want to sell you some fat pipe (to somehow justify being quite expensive for often very little service), but don't want you to use it. They expect you to be a "burst" user. Download a page in 2 seconds, then look at the page for 5 minutes, then flip to the next... and so on. Yes, that's 10mbit you get. For two seconds. And you get it because everyone else is also expected to do that.

They don't expect you to use those 10mbit constantly, permanently, 24/7. But that's as what it is being sold. They promise you 10mbit, but they don't want you to use it.

They're overselling by magnitudes, and of course that doesn't work out in the long run when people actually (gasp!) use what they're being sold. How dare they!

So instead of telling people how to use their internet connection (what makes your traffic more important than mine, btw?), how about telling ISPs to sell only what they got?

please don't feed the trolls

[burris]

This one is rich coming from a guy that invested in a BitTorrent wanna-be that was recently purchased by Akamai. I heard Cuban made most of his money back on that one.

Re:hold on a sec...

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

I think what he meant to say was that companies distributing products via the internet, using P2P are using the users bandwidth for free. That is not a choice of the user, but instead a dictated protocol by lets say a movie distribution company.

I'm not quite sure he meant that it isn't a users right to use P2P if they chose... but instead he wishes to prevent companies from using your bandwidth for free, for their monetary gain.

The attack on all P2P i think was a unintended target and just poor wording on his case.

I might be wrong on this.

My view is that P2P is a users right. They can do what they want with the bandwidth they pay for. But companies that charge you to download again lets say movies from them through a P2P system, should not expect to use my bandwidth for free, so that they can in return profit, and charge me for it.

Re:Just imagine how fast the internet would be...

[cyriustek]

Actually, it has already been done.

From the ISS X-Force Database...

LOKI is a client/server program published in the online publication Phrack. This program is a working proof-of-concept to demonstrate that data can be transmitted somewhat secretly across a network by hiding it in traffic that normally does not contain payloads. The example code can tunnel the equivalent of a Unix RCMD/RSH session in either ICMP echo request (ping) packets or UDP traffic to the DNS port. This is used as a back door into a Unix system after root access has been compromised. Presence of LOKI on a system is evidence that the system has been compromised in the past.

http://xforce.iss.net/xforce/xfdb/1452 [iss.net]

Man, you got me all excited...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not expensive. The quality is good (256kbit vbr mp3's). And they have everything from my favorite band: the relative unknown The Flower Kings.
But it's not for me, because I don't live in the USA, but in the Netherlands. So I am not allowed to download anything from them.

Re:My ISP

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, in all fairness, 200 SEK is actually about $30 rather than $15 :-)

Okay, how does $500 a month sound?

[walterbyrd]

I think that's about what T1 costs. If you want honest, unlimited, 1.5mbs, then isn't that what you should pay?

You've moved up on my shitlist, Cuban.

[urcreepyneighbor]

You earned your initial spot on my shitlist by financing Redacted. You've bumped up a rung by this stunt.