BitTorrent to ISPs: Pay us and our users to stay in the “slow lane”

BitTorrent CEO Eric Klinker doesn't want Internet service providers to charge Web services for prioritized access to consumers -- "fast lanes" as described in the debate over proposed network neutrality regulations. Instead, Klinker is (satirically) suggesting the opposite: that ISPs should pay companies and users to remain in a "slow lane."

With fast lanes, money would flow "from your favorite websites to the ISPs, the very same companies you already pay to deliver Internet service to your home," he wrote. "In this model, the ISPs get paid twice, both to provide their service and regulate heavy-use companies, like Netflix." Klinker criticized arguments that ISPs are entitled to collect premiums to make sure that heavy network users "pay their fair share" and don't cause congestion for others. "These are very familiar arguments, as they were used to justify the most notable violation of Network Neutrality in recent memory: the blocking of BitTorrent traffic by Comcast in 2007 and 2008," he wrote.