Internet providers’ throttling of BitTorrent traffic is a warning sign of descent toward a loss of Internet freedoms because, while providers point to wasted bandwidth as the reason, myriad other traffic flavors that require massive bandwidth don’t seem to merit detection and control at the providers’ end. “It makes one wonder, what’s so special about BitTorrent that it cries out to be controlled in such a radical manner?” Tom Yager asks in Digital TV foreshadows erosion of Internet rights. “That’s an easy one. The entertainment lobby, having failed to get the feds to impose a tax on videotapes and recordable discs, or to hold Internet providers liable for copyrighted content transferred through their networks, or (so far) to add a piracy tax to every broadband user’s monthly bill, is using the most powerful weapon yet devised: Standards.” Software Development