Long Arm of the Law Reaches New Internet (RIAA, Internet-2, i2hub Lawsuit)

Have you heard of the new Internet? It's called Internet 2 and this time they're not fooling around. The Abilene Network , begun in 1999 provides the main backbone and they're a pure optical network wired for speed.

According to their website, (on the plain old regular Internet) "The Abilene Network, which currently connects over three million users, 220 research and education institutions, and 34 state education networks, operates at a speed 15,000 times faster than the average household broadband connection and with a capacity to send 9.7 million five-paragraph e-mails in one second."

This means we're soon going to get nuclear powered spam!

Everyone knows speed is addictive. Not only for Indy 500 racecar drivers, but also for computer science mega-geeks who will one day finally rule the world. They're shooting for speeds in the Terabyte range; that's a trillion bits of information every second.

"We now wish to be called "Tera-geeks, you puny sub-creatures!"

"Do I need all that speed for my email?" one might ask. You do if you're attaching astrophysics, fusion energy computations, and bioinformatics with your message. The present Internet can't handle this kind of math. But will Internet 2 be used only for noble purposes? I haven't heard of any holographic lap dances yet, but some people are definitely not happy with what Internet 2 users are doing.

Like the beginning of the first Internet in the 70's and 80's, Internet 2 is the domain of universities and research organizations for the purpose of advancing the aspirations and higher thinking of humanity. University students are already benefiting from the technology by illegally downloading movies and music at warp speed. A full-length movie only takes five minutes to download on the Internet 2 instead of an hour or more by cable modem. Songs come at a pithy twenty seconds.

"Not so fast!" says the record and movie industry. They're nipping this one in the bud. The RIAA announced that it's suing 405 individual students for copyright infringement violations using the "i2hub". The movie industry is suing an undisclosed number of students as well. What's i2hub? It's like a Napster on crack. But you need to use it on Internet 2 to really fly - and that's not open to the general public yet.

According to the Motion Picture Association of America, there were 7070 users sharing 99.2 TB of files in one recent snapshot of time. "Ninety-nine terabytes is enough storage space to hold all the movies that are available in a local Blockbuster store, yet people are swapping those movies entirely free," said an outraged and very frustrated Dan Glickman, President of the MPAA.

The RIAA will sue a handful of students per university to plant the seeds of fear widely. UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, & the University of Southern California are among the 18 Universities where students are being served papers.

Can they stuff the electronic genie back in the bottle? If they can't, the RIAA and MPAA are not going down easy. Imagine 405 students calling home telling Mom & Dad to be ready to put up the house because they thought the Internet 2 was a private network and they just wanted to fill up the iPod they were given for Christmas. The highest offenders, according to the RIAA, were caught with up to 13,600 MP3's, and 72,700 total files (such as audio, software and video).

"Son, what were you thinking, I've got "Planet of the Apes" at home!

Rick David writes a humor column called, "Don't Laugh It Could Happen To You" for http://sandiego.merchantamerica.com

---

Chat-less

Are you suddenly chat-less now that Yahoo has shut down... Read More

Broadband

Broadband is the name given to a high-speed Internet connection... Read More

Webmail - What are the Benefits?

There are so many different webmail services on the internet,... Read More

Wifi Hotspot Locations for Sale..is that a Good Thing?

Recent companies have been advertising wifi hotspot locations that are... Read More

Searching for the Right ISP

When searching for the right ISP there are a number... Read More

Ka Band -Affordable Satellite Internet On The Way!

Ka Band VSAT* satellite internet technology has enormous possibilities for... Read More

Beta Testing First Mobile Internet Satellite Broadband, Part II

We were the first beta testers of a Mobile Command... Read More

ICMP Protocol - Internet Control Message Protocol

The Internet Control Message Protocol communicates errors messages between systems... Read More

Why Choose Dial Up ISP Services

Dial up ISP service is the cheapest choice of any... Read More

Whois Protocol - TCP/IP Suite

The Whois protocol is an information service not unlike the... Read More

Beta Testing First Mobile Internet Satellite Broadband, Part III

Back in 1999 when we beta tested the first wireless... Read More

BT Broadband

Approximately 4 million people in the UK use ADSL with... Read More

Broadband Connection to the Central Sun

You may have noticed the expansion of consciousness that has... Read More

How to Choose Best ISP for Your Needs

Well, the Internet access industry is starting to shake its... Read More

Time to Redefine Telecom

Telecommunication, according to Wikipedia, is the extension of communication over... Read More

Wireless Network Hammerin

The wireless network in my house went haywire. It worked... Read More

Internet ISPs

Choosing an internet ISP is often a rash and impulsive... Read More

Understanding Broadband - Are You Ready To Upgrade?

Are you ready to upgrade your residential service to DSL... Read More

Long Arm of the Law Reaches New Internet (RIAA, Internet-2, i2hub Lawsuit)

Have you heard of the new Internet? It's called Internet... Read More

DSL Internet is a Simple and Easy Way to Get Fast Internet Service

DSL ? which stands for Digital Subscriber Line ? is... Read More

Compare Cable vs. DSL

Okay, so you are finally tired of those slow dial-up... Read More

Some DSL Broadband Definitions

Often too many people get confused with all the definitions,... Read More

Find the Best Broadband Provider for You

To find the best broadband provider for you takes some... Read More

Two Enter Internet Battle

Consumers understand that when there is more competition in... Read More

Why You Should Switch To A Fast Internet Connection

With high-speed Internet access becoming available in more and more... Read More

Beta Testing First Mobile Internet Satellite Broadband, Part I

Being on the road has its advantages; the freedom is... Read More

Top 3 UK Broadband Providers

Every Internet provider today wants to make it sound like... Read More

Broadband - Will it Affect Your Online Marketing Future?

The coming age of general Broadband use bearing down upon... Read More

Google Talk Reviewed

So you're sick and tired of AOL Instant Messenger. You're... Read More

Mind Machine Interfacing

SQUID:In 1984 I was partnered with a Cable TV engineer... Read More

The Coming Television Revolution

The revolution is just getting started and will be begin... Read More

How to Get Broadband

Getting broadband services getting easy, but research still required.Broadband Internet... Read More

Cheap Internet Access

For anyone trying to get the cheapest internet available, there... Read More