Possible future revenue model for NSP's

An interesting patent--although by no means novel--that I came across that has some interesting implications for the future of the Internet: dynamic ad insertion by transparent proxies. This is, of course, trivial to anyone who is remotely competent with squid, which is sometimes used to simply remove ads.

In a lot of ways, I'm vaguely surprised that ads are still generally left intact downstream from the content provider. Not that I'm condoning hijacking ads--the practice is/would be more than a bit unethical in my book, but so is a number of other practices common in telecom by the ILECS and cable MSOs. Simply put, there is a lot of potential revenue for last mile providers tired of content providers getting a free ride on their pipes. I do realize the potential litigation nightmare--advertising and content use is a tricky issue--but, judging by the lack of lawsuits against ad-blockers and such, this might actually be able to slip by.

Again, I'm not in any way condoning this--an Internet where the ISP replaces all of the ads on the site you are viewing with their own advertisements pretty much kills the advertising-supported model that is the backbone of the current Internet economy. I think, however, that it is perhaps just a matter of time before a company heads down this route and, with the FCC giving transit providers carte-blanche jurisdiction over content carried on their networks--the content providers would probably not get a lot of support from the current administration. Yet another reason why Net Neutrality is a must for a viable Internet economy.