jimji - 8:33 am on Sep 28, 2010 (gmt 0)

I think it's a bit late to try and resist the government types now. If it couldn't be accomplished back in '99 when Clinton's folks started getting all hot-to-trot to have access to all manner of anything they wanted, it ain't gonna get slowed down now. These government entities feast upon themselves and just get bigger and bigger and like a typhoon they suck in more and more and I don't see any frigid waters ahead to slow them down.

Call this "Typhoon IOP". Cute name, eh?

But that NY Times article has a few paragraphs I don't think I understand.

These two paragraphs, for starters:

James X. Dempsey, vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, an Internet policy group, said the proposal had “huge implications” and challenged “fundamental elements of the Internet revolution” — including its decentralized design. “They are really asking for the authority to redesign services that take advantage of the unique, and now pervasive, architecture of the Internet,” he said. “They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function.”

What exactly is Mr. Dempsey talking about? What are the changes to the Net infrastructure that would make it so different? And, ah, aren't there some folks already building a new Internet?

And this one line here seems a real interesting situation.

Foreign-based providers that do business inside the United States must install a domestic office capable of performing intercepts.

Just who the heck is going to get caught up in this net?

There have to be a lot of companies headquartered outside of the United States that provide some kind of services to customers in the United States and they don't have a physical presence inside the United States, right? I mean a lot! Hundreds? More. All those companies are going to have to maintain offices within the United States? I suppose that's one way to get the real estate market back on its feet.

But I am not sure I clearly understand what is meant by "providers". Providing what? Not simple web hosting companies, right? That would really be a problem for a lots and lots of folks.

Anybody know?

By the way, IOP comes from 'Invasion of Privacy'.