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December 4, 2008 2:52:41 PM CST

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Net Neutrality May Slow Downloads

Posted Mar 11, 08 12:20 PM CDT in Technology 

(Newser) – The principle of net neutrality can be taken too far, some experts say. The internet could be made much more efficient—and downloads faster—if network managers were allowed to use info about the content they're sending, a Princeton engineering professor tells Technology Review. That would allow them to prioritize what should be rushed and what can wait.

BitTorrent's CTO agrees but says he's not sure there's reason enough to trust that network operators wouldn't misuse info about content, which is exactly what net neutrality is designed to prevent. "I think there's a degree of mistrust at the moment where I'm not sure we would believe the operators," says Eric Klinker.

Source MIT Technology Review

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Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin speaks during a hearing regarding lifting the ban on cross-media ownership, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2007, at FCC headquarters in Washington. (AP...   (Associated Press)
Federal Communication Commission chairman Kevin J. Martin, center, and commissioner Michael J. Copps, left, listen to testimony as commissioner Robert McDowell, right, takes notes during a hearing in...   (Associated Press)
"Finding the network capacity," said one researcher, "will take many years of hard work by computer scientists and mathematicians."   (Shutterstock.com)
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is projected behind himself in this image from the Feb 25 public hearing in Cambridge.   ((c) believekevin)
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