Re: Internet Content Caching Devices

[Peter Charbonneau <Peter.Charbonneau () WILLIAMS EDU>]

Thanks Valdis,

  Clear and concise, as usual.

p
On Dec 3, 2009, at 3:35 PM, Valdis Kletnieks wrote:

> On Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:04:47 EST, Peter Charbonneau said:
> >   We do not block P2P at the present time,
>
> As far as I know, nobody's making a content caching appliance that
> will
> cache P2P traffic, so this will probably reduce the effectiveness of
> a cache.  If somebody knows of a P2P-aware cache, feel free to
> enlighten me.
>
> >                                             so there is some concern
> > that the appliance might cache copyrighted content.
>
> Actually, you *know* the content will be copyrighted, because it was
> almost
> certainly produced in a country that's a signatory to the Berne
> conventions,
> which means it acquires *some* sort of copyright the instant it's
> created.
> It's actually harder to get something into true 'public domain'
> status than
> you think.
>
> The *important* question is "did the owner of the copyright want it
> to be
> cached or not". It's a somewhat subtle but important distinction -
> "might cache
> copyrighted content" and "might cache *infringing* content" are very
> different
> beasts indeed.
>
> And it turns out you're *mostly* off the hook on this one, at least
> in the US.
>
> http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000512----000-.html
>
> 17 USC 512 (b) addresses system caching, and for the most part it
> basically
> says "if it's in your cache because a user requested it it's not
> your fault".
> 17 USC 512 (b)(2)(D) seems to be the hardest one to fulfill:
>
> "D) if the person described in paragraph (1)(A) has in effect a
> condition that a
> person must meet prior to having access to the material, such as a
> condition
> based on payment of a fee or provision of a password or other
> information, the
> service provider permits access to the stored material in
> significant part only
> to users of its system or network that have met those conditions and
> only in
> accordance with those conditions; and "
>
> Basically, if the data is behind a paywall only 3 of your users have
> access
> to, you can only serve it from your cache to those 3 users.  The fun
> part is
> determining "is this behind a paywall?" - no I don't have any words of
> wisdom on this one.
>
> 17 USC 512(b)(2)(E) is a takedown section - if you accidentally cached
> infringing content that somebody else put up without authorization,
> you
> need to be able to flush it out of your cache upon request.
>
> >   Is there an Educause white paper on this already?  Has the
> > community determined that they are all junk and not worth the money?
>
> If they're not worth the money, why is Aakamai still in business? :)
>
> Seriously, it's all going to be about the hit ratio - what percent
> of your
> traffic is cacheable.  And quite frankly, I'd expect it won't really
> do
> that much to save traffic because most of the time people are
> hitting all
> sorts of different pages as they browse the web.  The one exception is
> if there's a "ZOMG! Michael Jackson Died!!" event where everybody is
> hitting
> the same page(s) over and over, where it can cut down a lot on the
> traffic.
> Of course, those are the moments you most want a cache in place...



PeteC


Peter Charbonneau
Sr. Network and Systems Administrator
Williams College
(413) 597-3408 (office)
(413) 822-2922 (cell)
OIT will NEVER ask for your password!