Re:FUD begets FUD (Score 1)

...you're in a situation where, to get decent service, you HAVE TO be able to afford [to pay for premium bandwidth]. So you've created a barrier to entry for the little guys....I'm worried about, say, wikisecrets not being able to afford decent service.

That's where the "subsidy" part I waved arms about comes in. You build in a floor of access to bandwidth, by reducing the pool of "market rate" bandwidth to some level probably defined thru the political process. Kinda like "affordable housing" schemes so hotly pursued here in S.F.... except they ain't making any more San Francisco real estate, so doing this for Internet bandwidth, which is relatively easy to add, should be easier. This is a compromise position between enforced neutrality, which encourages greed and waste (spammers like it), and a laissez-faire market, which prices out the little guy. We've gotten used to the cheap capacity left over from the dot-com bubble. Scarcity feels weird and brings back all that unpleasant economic stuff. Good article you cited. I have noticed the "consumerization" of the Internet. I think Walker made the wrong call on DRM though: It's hard to beat "free", esp. if you offer nothing of value for what you charge. I'm for more accountability... I always liked D. Chaum's work on blind signatures (marketed by the now-defunct DigiCash), because they act to reveal "just enough" authentication of the subject for the purpose, i.e. confidence that the subject is indeed over 21, or holds the right to use a particular payment instrument. Fun stuff.