Forum Moderators: open
A top United Nations official on Monday called for changes in the way the Internet is operated, taking aim at "self-serving justifications" for permitting the United States to preserve its unique influence and authority online.Speaking during opening ceremonies at a four-day U.N. summit here, Yoshio Utsumi criticized the current rules for overseeing domain names and Internet addresses, stressing that poorer nations are dissatisfied and are hoping that this week's meeting will erode U.S. influence.
U.N. Proposes Changes To Net's Operation [news.com.com]
How is that related to the UN topic?
2) Examining some of the potential issues reveal them to be largely of political nature. Some countries are bummed that THEY aren't "in charge" of the Internet and are using any forum they can to get headlines by criticizing the way the U.S. through ICANN is handling things. To date, not a single entity other than U.S.-based interests has come up with any substantial proposal (for real) that would qualify as a replacement or even a substantial modification of the currently revised U.S. Department of Commerce/ICANN agreement nor has anyone come up with plans that demonstrate the submitters' (a) ability to manage the same set of tasks, (b) finance the same set of tasks or (c) move into the future of domain governance with anything like competence, (relative) transparency and a true understanding of the scope of the tasks.
People call for change all the time, but few are those who are prepared to make the change happen, and fewer still are prepared to take the responsibility inherent in such change.
<edit>I refer you to the actual text [intgovforum.org] of the opening ceremonies. The writer from CNet is either on an agenda or he's too wrapped up in something else to be able to appreciate Mr. Utsumi's remarks. There was no mention of the United States in Mr. Utsumi's remarks, which could easily apply to the United Nations or any other major player or group of players.</edit>
[edited by: StupidScript at 12:45 am (utc) on Oct. 31, 2006]
I'm European, permanently reside in the USA, spend lots of time in lots of places (on vacation for lots of the year).
I don't believe anyone controls my activities, domain names, resources or abilities to operate.
Maybe the UN got Capitalism confused with Imperialism as far as the Internet is concerned?
No one owns Capitalism (or the Internet), maybe the USA leads, but those Russians, Chinese and Indians (to name a few) ain't so far behind!....Good for them too!
The Internet is controlled by free global Capitalists....no need for the UN to intervene here unless they see a problem with democratic Capitalism?
I'm European, permanently reside in the USA, spend lots of time in lots of places (on vacation for lots of the year).
I don't believe anyone controls my activities, domain names, resources or abilities to operate.
Maybe the UN got Capitalism confused with Imperialism as far as the Internet is concerned?
No one owns Capitalism (or the Internet), maybe the USA leads, but those Russians, Chinese and Indians (to name a few) ain't so far behind!....Good for them too!
The Internet is controlled by free global Capitalists....no need for the UN to intervene here unless they see a problem with democratic Capitalism?
Maybe next time these losers want more control they should invent it themselves.
It was invented in European Organization for Nuclear Research, Switzerland. The first proposal for the WWW was made at CERN by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, and further refined by him and Robert Cailliau in 1990. The first web servers were all located in European physics laboratories and only a few users had access to the NeXT platform on which the first browser ran. CERN soon provided a much simpler browser, which could be run on any system.
While the first web server in the United States came on-line in December 1991, once again in a pure research institute: the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in California.
[public.web.cern.ch...]
[wwwpdp.web.cern.ch...]
Governments want more control of the internet not so that they can advance it, but rather so that they can censor it, and use its control for their own greed.
How come 'professionals' do not know where WWW was invented?
The WWW was invented in Europe in 1990, but the Internet dates to about 1969? in the US.
Banning online Gambling is more about controlling Morals, than about controlling the Net.
How come 'professionals' do not know where WWW was invented?
The internet was around before websites, does ARPA ring a bell?
The point is that no one organization "runs" or "owns" the network or its contents. We all contribute toward making it what it is and will become.
The political squawking is misinformed. Does Japan or the ITU or any other nation/org really think that they have been cut out of anything, other than a few bragging rights? I've never worked in a professional IT environment that did not have many people of different nationalities working together in it, and even working across national boundaries, thanks to a network that WORKs. It'll change, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse ... but I've got SHOES older than the Internet, so all of this turmoil is to be expected as our little project grows up.
Banning online Gambling is more about controlling Morals, than about controlling the Net.
I know for a stone cold fact that companies that used to operate in the US are now looking more seriously at the UK and European markets, for instance, and recent noises from the UK goverment indicate that they'd like the tax action, if the US Christian Right has dictated that they'll have no part of Satan's dollar.
If the US gets totally stupid, and starts trying to really "control" corporations like Google, I'd expect them to just move out of the country and register elsewhere. If it really came to it, Russia would love an influx of capital like that, for instance
But we all know how corrupt and crooked the U.N. is, this just proves we should get out of the United Nations and let all the repressive dictatorships play with their toys..
And maybe create a League of Free Nations...
