[ NNSquad ] Re: Civil Rights Groups Wants P2P Throttling to Preserve Rights (or something like that)

[Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com>]

On Wed, 5 Mar 2008, Vint Cerf wrote:
> Are you saying that your service is private and therefore you can decide
> what I can and cannot send through it?

Ever since the MILNET split from ARPANET, different networks have had 
different policies.  Neither MILNET nor the ARPANET alone was the 
"Internet."  Later the NSFNET had research-only, non-commercial use
policies at the same time other networks like Alternet had commercial 
traffic.  Alternet even had connections to the Soviet Union at the same 
time the NSFNET prohibited traffic with the Soviet Union crossing the 
NSFNET network.

Fast forward to today, and Google has different policies for the use of
its networks than Lariat has for the use of its network.  Why is that a
bad thing?  Why should Google decide how Lariat runs its network, or why 
should Lariat decide how Google runs its network?  Just like ARPANET and
MILNET had different polices, but were both part of the Internet; why 
can't Google and Lariat have different policies and both be part of the
Internet?