Skype and its fair use
I got into an interesting discussion with a guy in my team. What makes the ability to correctly capture and identify Skype traffic so valuable? Why are we wasting time and effort on finding out how Skype routes traffic under different type of network scenarios? Skype Inc. can easily change the behavior in the next version, and we need to retest and check if their packets fall within our parameters.
He says Skype and among other applications, will eventually be bundled together as a filter list, and customers would subscribe to get the latest definitions - kinda like antivirus software.
Who would have such an invested interest in categorizing Skype traffic? ISP, he says. He explains:
Skype is a P2P technology: other than having a centralized login server, everything else is handled by peers. Every computer running Skype is a node, and if the computer and network qualifies, it can be a supernode. Because Skype doesn't run on a centralized server, Skype Inc. doesn't pay ISPs for the leased lines it uses to connect calls - the clients do. Compared to Vonage, calling cards, and other VoIP services that use centralized servers, Skype is pocketing a much larger amount of profits, and ISPs wants a share of that.
This is where my opinion differs from my teammate. Why should Skype share their profits with the ISPs? That's their competitive advantage. In addition, if ISPs start blocking Skype traffic until Skype Inc. pays for the leased lines, wouldn't that become a net-neutrality issue and a violation of antitrust laws?
I do not want to live in a world like this.
