"Bandwidth expands to fit the waste available" (Voidmstr's law) was: Re: Napster and others...

[Kai Schlichting <kai () pac-rim net>]

At Tuesday 09:48 AM 3/7/00 , Scott McGrath wrote:

> When you have limited bandwidth you need to ensure that it is used for
> what it is purchased for (email access to network based resources etc) and also as
> Napster moves MP3's you need to ensure that your facilities are not used for
> infringement on other's intellectualproperty so that you and your organization are
> not sued by rapacious lawyers unfortunate but there it is here is a short list in
> ACL format of Napster and other MP3 servers.

"need to ensure" ?
By doing so, you forfeit your liability exception as a carrier -
the "Prodigy defense".

Next thing you know, the US Attorney is on your doormat with a demand to
block this tiny list of 756 disparate /26's that are known to harbor
overseas gambling sites.

5 minutes later, RIAA lawyers are coming in with a list of 2759
'uncooperative' (in their opinion, as far as music intellectual
property protection is concerned) overseas networks they'd like
blocked - or their lawyers will threaten your lawyers.

Quickly, your ACL or 'null0' routing table grows to the size of the
entire Internet. Your router will melt. It's the end of the Internet.

Denial of knowledge of "rampant" illegal acts - except maybe those that
cripple your own infrastructure :) - is the only solution: How else
could cops stand the thought of knowing that everyone is driving
15 mph over the posted speed limit, and they can only catch one in
a hundred speeders :)

In the face of your own network melting, your actions should be limited
to preventing such a meltdown only. No more. Rule #1 for bandwidth:
"Bandwidth expands to fit the waste available" (Voidmstr's law)

QoS that is adaptive to bandwidth consumption is the real solution
for this many-to-many traffic problem. Because many-to-many filtering
just won't work, not even at the edge of the network.

bye,Kai