Slashdot Mirror
Internet Routes Around South African Gov't
Mister B writes: "In an end-run around the South African government's plans to seize control of the .za domain, administrator Mike Lawrie took pre-emptive action and moved the primary .za zone file offshore. Revealing their naivete, parliamentary committee chairman Nkenke Kekana accused him of destabilising the net! Then again, the opposition think he's a hero. :-) More details on MSNBC."
As usual, a since person sprouting bullshit and claiming the support of everyone. A few facts? Try to get them straight:
The bill will set up a section 21 company to control the .za domain. The government won't be doing it, or handing it to the incompetent IT division. They will be dictating policy to a company board.
The quotes about prosperity and Internet access are a media fuckup because they are completely out of context. They refer to the bill in general, which provides for better access to the underprivlidged, and recognition of the legal status of Internet communications. The comments do not apply to section X.
The "local internet community" you refer to are Namespace ZA, who are: 1. backed by industry interests, who don't want to see their monopoly as registrars threatened or be made to do more work by having to replace their shitty dispute resolution policities with something which is actually fair and legally sound; 2. represent a community of mainly technically oriented individuals, who are known to have an anti-government stance when it comes to regulation, and don't really give a shit about apply ZA policy and law to domain ownership.
You didn't need to mention you were a journalist: your complete lack of factual information or the ability to tell media hype from actual evidence make it obvious that you are one.
i-name =twylite [http://public.xdi.org/=twylite], see idcommons.net
they are a logical construct brought into and maintained in existence by whoever runs the root servers, for the convenience of internet users. Those who run the root servers have pledged no allegiance or subordination to the South African government.
I have no idea how the domain name system works. However, the internet has become a public resource, and national governments are in the best position to regulate public resources.
Which is the more reasonable outcome: to have the country domains regulated by the corresponding governments (presumably democratically elected by their people), or by a group of arbitrary, unelected system administrators?
The fact that domain names are not bricks or mortar is irrelevant; we're in the 21st century, assets don't have to be physical.