There should be a limit on how much something can scale before they have to pay for resources. Let's analyze that issue without resorting to an easy-to-defeat straw man ... basically, we can think of FREE things (free food on a cruise, etc.) as an egalitarian layer which delivers goods and services only up to a certain point -- usually this point is a reasonable one that would satisfy an average consumer. For example, if a person started eating all the food, stuffing it in their luggage, throwing it overboard, etc. then at some point the cruise operators would approach the person and either ban them from consuming any more resources ("by force") or give them the option to continue doing it, but pay. This doesn't mean the lower level wasn't free.
What's nice about free things is that it's a safety net, and also lowers the barrier for new entrants and trying new ideas. But it's only free up to a point. In MY opinion, you shouldn't be sending 34% of the internet's traffic and expect the same treatment as a person who is hosting a small website. At some point, you're setting up SPECIAL agreements for crying out loud, with tier 1 providers, Google fiber, etc. Your cables are in their physical centers, and that's favoritism, that's physical presence which doesn't scale to millions of companies even theoretically. So yeah, at some point the market participants should be free to negotiate their own agreements and prices, or refuse a level of service that exceeds what a "free" tier would get.
I am talking, of course, about the provider side. Consumers already pay for their service, but I personally think that the UN is right about internet access being a "human right" these days everyone should get an unconditional basic income which is enough to pay for, among other things, a basic level of internet service.
What's nice about free things is that it's a safety net, and also lowers the barrier for new entrants and trying new ideas. But it's only free up to a point. In MY opinion, you shouldn't be sending 34% of the internet's traffic and expect the same treatment as a person who is hosting a small website. At some point, you're setting up SPECIAL agreements for crying out loud, with tier 1 providers, Google fiber, etc. Your cables are in their physical centers, and that's favoritism, that's physical presence which doesn't scale to millions of companies even theoretically. So yeah, at some point the market participants should be free to negotiate their own agreements and prices, or refuse a level of service that exceeds what a "free" tier would get.
I am talking, of course, about the provider side. Consumers already pay for their service, but I personally think that the UN is right about internet access being a "human right" these days everyone should get an unconditional basic income which is enough to pay for, among other things, a basic level of internet service.