Decius wrote:

A senior telecommunications executive said yesterday that Internet service providers should be allowed to strike deals to give certain Web sites or services priority in reaching computer users, a controversial system that would significantly change how the Internet operates.

They're nuts. They have the customers with the cash. We've got the content. They ought to be paying us for making their service valuable!

Get ready! More of this to come! With the way the FCC has handled telecom over the last 5 years, you'll see more of the major carriers (both cable and ILEC) position to start "tariffing" traffic by assigning QoS tags to those that pay up and relegating everyone else to UBR status. You'll see them do this to start blocking VoIP traffic and I'm sure MPAA/RIAA will lever them to do this with P2P traffic as well. As long as you pay up though, you'll be fine. This will also mark the end of peering as we've known it.