Dave Farber comments on Re: Major Labels v. Backbones

[Sean Donelan <sean () donelan com>]

On Fri, 16 Aug 2002, Richard A Steenbergen wrote:
> Ok here's a question, why are they sueing AT&T, CW, and UU? I see
> Listen4ever behind 4134 (China Telecom), who I only see buying transit
> through InterNAP. Wouldn't it be simpler for them to sue InterNAP? I guess
> it would sure be nice precedent, if they could make some big tier 1
> providers do their bidding to filter whoever they want whenever they want.

The problem with BGP is you only see the "best" path more than one hop
away. The network in question is reachable through transit providers other
than InterNAP, such as Concert.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/17/business/media/17MUSI.html

The New York Times says the companies named in the suit are AT&T
Broadband (not AT&T's backbone?), Cable & Wireless, Sprint Corporation
and UUNet technologies.

  "David Farber, a University of Pennsylvania computer scientist and an
  early architect of the Internet, filed an affidavit in the case, saying
  it would be relatively easy for the Internet companies to block the
  Internet address of the Web site without disrupting other traffic.

  "It's not a big hassle," Mr. Farber said. "There's no way to stop
  everybody, but a substantial number of people will not be able to get
  access."