Earthlink enters filesharing

This is naught but a wisper and there is little widespread posting on it, but it's very interesting none the less. Earthlink has posted a "proof-of-concept" P2P filesharing application for very limited functions. The importance in this is that Earthlink hits the nail on the head in their (below quoted) sentiments. The internet must retain it's end-to-end architecture to flourish. P2P is vital to the ongoing success of the internet. Indeed it is an inherent part of the internet.

EarthLink believes an open Internet is a good Internet. An open Internet means users have full end-to-end connectivity to say to each other whatever it is they say, be that voice, video, or other data exchanges, without the help of mediating servers in the middle whenever possible. We believe that if peer-to-peer flourishes, the Internet flourishes. SIPshare helps spread the word that SIP is more than a powerful voice over IP enabler ?- much more. SIP is a protocol that enables peer-to-peer in a standards-based way. The emerging ubiquity of SIP as a general session-initiation enabler provides a rare opportunity to offer users all manner of P2P applications over a common protocol, instead of inventing a new protocol for each new P2P application that comes along.

From Clay Shirky on Many-to-Many: SIPShare: P2P SIP-based filesharing from Earthlink

Also: Slashdot | Earthlink Releases SIP Based P2P File-Sharing App