[11410] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
re: The whole CIX concept is flawed
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Huon N. Dang)
Thu Mar 31 21:53:51 1994
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 15:12:07 +0800
From: hnd@chevron.com (Huon N. Dang)
To: com-priv@psi.com, bilse@eu.net
Cc: hnd@chevron.com
Please remove hnd@chevron.com off the mailing list. Thanks.
-Huon
> From com-priv-forw@lists.psi.com Thu Mar 31 14:48 PST 1994
> From: Per Gregers Bilse <bilse@eu.net>
> Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 19:42:01 +0200
> To: com-priv@psi.com
> Subject: re: The whole CIX concept is flawed
>
> On Mar 30, 21:46, Anonymous wrote:
> > intimidating; racket; extortion; protection money
>
> and what not.
>
> Dear Anonymous,
>
> I think most ISPs somehow welcome you, if for no other reason than a
> bigger Internet is a better Internet. This is indeed one of your
> points.
>
> You are, however, unaware of a number of historical and current facts.
>
> On the Internet you will find
>
> - no police
> - no law
> - no courts
> - no authorities
> - no security
>
> (That's one of the reasons it's working so well.) That means that if
> somebody wants to strangle you, or any other small ISP, all you can
> do is to wave your arms; a minute later, you're gone.
>
> The only safe haven for ISPs like you is the CIX. The CIX is the
> closest you can come to an authority and a free market; and it's
> actually quite good at it. If you call that a protection racket,
> you must have been growing up in a tin can.
>
> Your view of the CIX is, with all due respect, distorted beyond
> recognition. Keep in mind that you have no right whatsoever to
> exchange traffic with anybody else; it only happens if they wish to
> do it. Except in one particular place, where there is a guarantee of
> free exchange: the CIX.
>
> You want that guarantee for free. Sorry, can't be done. For one
> thing, there are real operational costs (manpower, equipment, office
> space, etc) associated with the CIX itself. The fact that you
> transit via somebody else doesn't reduce the need for the CIX to be
> there. Why should you, as an ISP, be allowed to get all the benefits
> of CIX membership, without chipping in? Foul play.
>
> As a matter of fact, the CIX has been so important for the
> development of commercial Internet Service Provision, that if the CIX
> hadn't been here well before you, you wouldn't be here at all.
> Others sow, and you just want to reap? Foul play.
>
> The CIX is also the closest thing we can come to a trading
> association, setting standards for Internet Service Provision.
> Currently, the "only" standard is zero-settlement traffic, but that's
> the basis for everybody's livelyhood. In the future, the CIX may
> well develop into something significantly more substantial, but you
> don't want to take part? You don't want to join the other ISPs in
> building our common future? F... well, you probably know what
> I was going to say.
>
> You seem to be extremely hung up over the money issue. If you want
> to become a certified accountant, doesn't that cost? A doctor? A
> taxi driver? If in no other way, then because you need to study, and
> learn -- but in many cases, certificates cost real money, for no
> _obvious_ reason. Who has made you believe you can become an ISP for
> free? If your budget breaks because of a one-off fee of $10k, you
> probably can't even survive a disk crash or two. Does the Internet
> stand to gain by having barrel-scrapers like you join in? I don't
> think so -- personally, of course.
>
> --
> bilse <bilse@EU.net> +31 20 592 5109 (dir: 5110); fax +31 20 592 5163
> ``Psst ... wanna buy some Internet?''
>
