Silicon: memories are made of this
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China wants to meter web traffic
THE GLORIOUS PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC of China wants to meter all Internet traffic that passes through its borders, in the hope of getting a bit of cash on the side.
The cunning plan is that it would make it possible for a country to monitor what traffic is going through its borders and charge for it.
Fortunately the plan would require international agreements. Unfortunately it is actually being considered by the United Nations.
Currently countries have a choice. They can either set up a "peer-to-peer" system in which no money changes hands but the traffic flow between the two countries balances out, or an asymmetrical system, where they have to pay the full cost of the connection.
China wants to see countries reaching a commercial agreement when Internet connections are established, including possible compensation for traffic flow and number of routes.
The BBC reports that an EU cyber security expert has warned China's plan could threaten the stability of the entire Internet.
Andrea Servida of the European Commission told a House of Lords committee that technical changes needed to charge everyone for Internet traffic flowing through China could undermine the web's founding principle of openness as well as raising security and stability concerns for all net users.
Strangely the UN internet standards body the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) said that it was not clear how introducing tariffs could threaten Internet security or stability.
It said the Chinese proposal did not involve modifying the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). All it involved was using BGP routers to collect traffic flow data, which could be used under bilateral agreements by operators for billing purposes. For the last ten years there have been talks about international Internet tariffs and the Chinese proposal was one of many ideas of being studied by ITU.
But Servida warned that the BGP protocol is an Internet Engineering Task Force standard and is not under the control of the ITU. He said that "the involvement of [the] ITU in this specific matter is highly questionable and alarming".
He claimed there was a clear intention to introduce higher government control of a critical Internet function through what might appear to be a purely technological discussion.
China's idea has the backing of developing countries, which currently have to bear the cost of international Internet connections. µ
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a small but significant increase in
body paint sales in the Big Smoke.
There has never been a global consumption of anything where governments haven't figured out a way of taxing it.
Labour are going to charge a 50p tax in the UK. It's going to cost them virtually nothing to do, they will just stick 50p on everyone's bill. No spend on backbone etc, just tax.
However to counter that Labour can boast that in this global recession versus the last 2 UK recessions we have only suffered 1/3 the number of home reposessions, 1/3 the number of business failures, 1/3 the number of people losing their jobs.
I remember the last recession approx 20 years ago, and it was devastating. Conservatives raised the basic interest rate to 15%, causing business loans and home mortgage monthly payments to go through the roof.
That single thing, raising interest rates to 15%, is what caused so many to lose their businesses, their homes and their jobs.
If your current monthly costs are £1,000, and then with the stroke of the chancellor's pen they go to £2,000 then you might find yourself struggling. That's what the Conservatives did last time.
It's what David Cameron said he would do again - nothin to help people, as it would only prolong the repayment of the borrowed money. It doesn't matter to him that businesses go bust, people lose their homes, and their jobs, so long as the national debt looks ok.
Sorry for the politics. It's just that I've not seen any balance of the recession numbers on any major news in the UK.
...cut them off from the internet completely? Then we won't have to hear anyone whining about censorship or tariffs or anything else.
China is not good for the world, from all the things I see and hear. They were responsible for the melamine poisoning of pet food not too long ago. They are responsible for lead poinsoning on kid's toys. These are not the only things - there are also many many more bad things are done that affect other's lives in one way or another.
I realize it's not necessarily the fault of the general population, but rather the government and businesses who, for all we know, are influenced by the government to conduct such behavior.
I say cut 'em off and let them build their own internet to do woth as they please. Let's build a wall around the whole country. Oh wait, that's already been done - by THEM. Ok, let's make that wall a technological, monetary,and commercial wall too.
Simple, make them pay the same rate for incoming traffic as other countries have to pay for content coming from China.