Hola,
There seems to be a confusion between private leaf networks (which nobody generally cares about) and the major backbone (as I-2 advocates portray it).
Nobody cares about AUPs in leaf networks. AUPs in transit backbones are evil. Or everybody already forgot NSFNET AUP and the tons of related hackery in routing policies all around the world?
The interesting thing to me below is the assumption that there is an inherent difference between a transit backbone and a private leaf network. Other than the likely lack of separate ASes within a leaf network, the difference is the policy of the network, in addition to the topoligical contiguity to other folks. Certainly this is significant. Yes I _know_ one could say that a backbone doesn't have any real destinations on it, but the distinction is rather vague. Clearly with loose source routing, one could make most any (properly unfiltered) leaf node network a transit network, if there were some motivation for doing this (but there wouldn't be, would there? :) I believe Manning makes a good point that an AUP is inherent to a network. We have seen an increase in the discussions of AUP with respect to backbones (MCI/SL/UU). The discussions regarding dumping defaults and forced routing to destinations not advertised all centered around AUP.
Actually, that Clinton's network "initiative" is entirely in line with their other efforts to curb the free flow of information -- particularly at the place where there is a contingent of young people who would be affected most by the information. It is no secret that political views ofmost people who have spent some time with Internet tend to shift to more libertaran, as they get taste for free communication not generally afforded by the "democratic" system. Hence the effective opposition to the encryption policy and CDA. Sure as hell, after such embarrasment the administation does not like intelligentsia to have a voice.
While the case is there, it is not that strong. I think Sagan calls it a pseudoscientific argument....
Don't fool yourself. The I-2 is not the "faster Internet". It is a tool to force those pesky free-thinkers to shut up.
Maybe. More likely it's a tool to give Higher Education institutions a QOS independant from the commercial world (also cheaper). I don't blindly accept the altruistic guise under which it was presented, but I do think there are sig. other reasons beyond government control. (On the other hand, Vadim does have more history on this than I do...) $0.02 rubles, Alan