David Beckemeyer has some thoughts on Skype's terms on service and that most users are unaware that their PCs might become supernodes and relay other people's traffic.
There's a potential PR disaster for Skype looming here. A lot of people are on metered broadband -- mostly low-end products that extend the market for DSL to people not willing to pay $45/month for unmetered access. If your PC becomes a supernode, you might be paying hefty overage charges, or get capped. But if Skype lets people opt out of being a supernode, everyone will do it and the system collapses.
Funnily enough, much of the answer comes from David's next entry: stop needing supernodes by not hiding behind a NAT box.
You can see the telco marketing pitch now -- don't use Skype, use our "managed" VoIP and get a predictable connectivity bill each month.
Posted by Martin Geddes at 1:17 AMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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