On May 24, 2013, at 2:34 AM, Andreas Larsen <andreas.larsen@ip-only.se> wrote:
If we continue to support and build tools around this geolocation based ip-dravel, we give people a false notion that this is something we should do. ...
Or just get rid of the whole idea and realize that the internet is global and reaches everywhere no matter what your IP currently is.
While the Internet is global and reaches everywhere, the same is not true about most businesses and governments... As a result, there are many use cases that we may not like, but are seen as basic requirements by those organizations. Examples include laws and business contracts that require different behavior depending on the location of the user, and from the view of these organizations, the Internet almost gives the impression of shoddy workmanship to omit such an obvious capability. Luckily, many organizations did come up with workarounds, and the lack of a 100% reliable solution did not prevent them from distributing content (software, music, movies, articles, etc.) that they only had rights to do so in a particular region. If the approximate geolocation approaches had not been used, we'd would not have had the region-restricted experimentation in content distribution that underlies quite a bit of the industry even today. One can argue that regionally-based business models should be changed, but the fact is that the not-quite-reliable geolocation services are actually has been pretty important in enabling traditional content in making it onto the Internet. (It is left as a exercise for the reader as to whether more highly reliable geolocation would meaningfully help the situation, or simply enable its use in non-commercial contexts to the detriment of the global user community.) /John Disclaimer: My views alone (& for folks who wish to filter this email based on my geolocation, it is presently Northern Virginia USA ;-)