UpsideToday Newsroom: Privacy from Companies8/9/2000; 9:31:26 AM 'As of last week, the International Olympic Committee had ruled out streaming video over the Internet, saying its free availability would create conflicts with exclusive broadcast deals the IOC has made with individual media companies on a country-by-country basis.'But the deal to make video available on the NBCOlympics.com website makes a neat end-run around the IOC limits, via Axient's OctaneSM network. 'Partnership with ISPs The Octane network, in a nutshell, consists of Axient's partnership with more than 100 Internet service providers (ISPs) across the country. These ISPs have agreed to verify that all their customers are within the United States, where NBC holds exclusive broadcast rights, thus circumventing the IOC's problem.'Notice that this principle could be extended further. While I doubt the ability to correctly pinpoint the location of an IP address along will ever really exist (especially in the age of roaming access) just by scanning address blocks and trying to basically guess what IP block is where, by joining forces with ISP's, tracking technology becomes not just feasible, but very powerful. It could potentially tie your IP address to you... your address, phone number, all the other stuff the ISP has to know about you because they have to remit a bill.The Octane network is harmless if it only functions as described in the article, but it lays down the technical foundation necessary for IP address-based monitoring.