MITM attacks or the Half/Circuit model - was Netflix Is Eating

[bmanning at vacation.karoshi.com (bmanning at vacation.karoshi.com)]

On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 12:32:49PM +0200, Phil Regnauld wrote:
> Leigh Porter (leigh.porter) writes:
> > 
> > Well it depends if Netflix pay for the bandwidth they use
> 
> 	You mean, customers have to pay for the bandwidth they use.
> 	I'm sure NetFlix is paying *their* network and other transit providers
> 	for outgoing bandwidth they consume.
> 	Phil


	note the classic Man-In-The-Middle attack here.  Or in other words, 
	the ITU half/circuit billing model for traditional telecomunications
	companies.   

	The telecom model is :  "I'll provide you with a tranist path to me,
	and trust me to hand your communications to the other party you wish
	to communicate with."  So GTE / MaBell gets to bill -both- parties
	at their usual usarious rates.  The problem here is that the incumbent
	operators have and are fighting tooth/nail to ensure their near monopoly
	on access.  
	So...
	We either need to re-regulate them to assure equal access at equitable rates
	-or- we need to de-regulate the access market and open up last mile ROW to
	all comers.  What we have done is de-regulate the access and retain the monopoly
	status on last mile ROW.  the incumbents have captive markets and can charge
	whatever the market will bear.  Great work if you can get it.

	If we truely beleived in end-2-end, we might see more systems
	using or trying to find other access paths ...   YMMV of course.

/bill