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EU, UN to Wrestle Internet Control From US
Anonymous Coward writes "The Guardian is reporting that the EU, obviously unimpressed with the US's refusal to relinguish control of the Internet, will be forming several comittees and forums with a mind to forcibly remove control of the Internet from the United States." From the article: "Old allies in world politics, representatives from the UK and US sat just feet away from each other, but all looked straight ahead as Hendon explained the EU had decided to end the US government's unilateral control of the internet and put in place a new body that would now run this revolutionary communications medium. The issue of who should control the net had proved an extremely divisive issue, and for 11 days the world's governments traded blows. For the vast majority of people who use the internet, the only real concern is getting on it. But with the internet now essential to countries' basic infrastructure - Brazil relies on it for 90% of its tax collection - the question of who has control has become critical."
All I have to say to the EU and UN is good luck. They can barely managed to manage themselves and they somehow think they can manage the Internet? The UN, as a body of managing anything, sucks. As a forumn to discuss and agree on things it works, sometimes. However, most anything that the UN "manages" fails miserably. Just what we want for the Internet that everyone sees as so critical to them.
If they (other countries) are so dependent on the Interent, then they should have set up redundancies LONG ago that would allow them to "survive" on their own. They should already be managing their own root servers, even though it is unlikely that the US will ever recognize them, or that software will without being manually changed. This is just moronic political positioning. They don't need to "wrestle control" from the US, and, frankly, they're not going to be able to. The US ignores most of the UN anyway, and only pays attention to the EU when it wants something from them. The whole point of this is the UN and EU trying to show some independence, and I suspect it will fail miserably.
In the end, this will fade from the media and the UN and EU will have another black eye of stupidity. Frankly, no one country has "control" over the internet anyway. Absolutely nothing stops any other country from setting up it's own networks (physical), root servers, dns servers, etc. If anyone decides to pay attention to what they set up is a completely different issue, and the real reason that they are trying to have the UN manage it.
As far as their statements on governments being invovled.... Uhm, duh? The UN is just a massive, dysfunctional collection of....you got it...GOVERNMENTS.
- AMW
"recommend that the US resign from the UN and see how long it holds together without our monetary support."
Silly guy, the US is not contributing to the UN, both financially and military.
[i]But if they want to force the issue, I'm thinking that we should "remind" our foreign allies that a country with our military might cannot and will not be forced.[/i]
Can and will do anything the fcuk it likes because only might is right?
A redneck on Slashdot?
While I think you're joking about that last part (at least I hope you are) I agree with the GP poster, withdrawl our forces from all UN operations. (of course I've wanted that for a long time).
To our comrads in the UN who want to yank the the root servers: Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
Prepare to have the internet as we know it go away. The Europeans aren't just interested in control of the roots. They will also want to rewrite all of the 'standards'. As they have done with telephone networks in the past. As soon as the europeans started upgrading to digital standards, they immediately rewrote all of the pre-existing standards to make sense. Taking the 24 channel T-1 and making it a 32 channel E1. Sure, it made sense, but it created an unecessary incompatibility. Same goes for cellular standards. Also prepare for European style billing, where every packet is measured and metered. Wanna pay a UN Internet Tarif? Often times Europeans will want to change standards just to make them less 'American'. As they have fought over their own consititions, fearing they are becomming too Americanized in the process. I believe one constitution draft nearly caused a riot when it's title was something akin to "The United States of Europe". The American's and the Canadian's spent decades fighting over and developing these standards from scratch. The Europeans, with the benefits of the decades of that work, will create new standards (just because it makes sense, hindsite is 20/20 after all), and to make them less American. Breaking all old software and hardware compatibility in the process.
Here's to losing my Karma Bonus again....
Maybe they are just trying to avoid that fragmentation because
a.) It would hurt both sides
b.) They (the UN) has the RIGHT to control those dns servers in the first place NOT the USA?
(Don't give me all the crap about the USA built the internet, no you didn't. You didn't lay the cables, at max you came up with a few protocols and a network card. Also, no it's not a big investment to maintain the DNS servers in the first place, so you're not "paying" for it either, because well, even the Vatican could manage that kind of monetary support to run those dns servers, and they are a _very_ small country. It is more of an authority thing than money thing.)
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
"Your argument, sir, is none at all."
No, my argument fulfilled its scope. My argument is simply showing that yours is incomplete. I am not arguing at all about the internet, the US, the UN or the EU. I did a good job.
"You have censured me for having incomplete information, yet you have failed to complete it yourself."
It's not my job to make your argument for you. You did half of your job. Take my criticism and learn, young grasshopper. Enroll in a logic class or something.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
I have a whole lot of problems with them and since it was my tax dollars and not the EU's that paid for the Internet in the first place (from the R&D to the initial deployments) I'll be damned if my Government turns it over to the World
No, you'd rather have them hand it over to private corporations.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
After all, we Europeans designed and built it!!!!1111!!!111
And while we are at it, would you please stop using telephones, computers, automobiles and TVs!!!1111
Thank you,
Your European friends!!
P.S.:
China insists on the US not using explosives and paper!!!!111
By the spirit of the UN, being the only true political organization on this planet?
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
A bunch of people got a bright (read "fucking retarded") idea and told their relative heads of state that we need to take control of the internet away from the US because that way we'll look important and stuff. Then the politician does what they say because they truly believe (read "were bribed/threatened") that the idea is a good one. Don't take into account that the UN is involved in a multi-billion dollar oil scandal that it still hasn't answered for (not to mention Kofi's son is involved in a nice little scandal of his own). The US is far from perfect, but the thought of handing control (if we even could) to another controlling body that's just as, if not more, corrupt and has ZERO experience in running these kinds of things just seems Special Ed retarded. I mean....it's like retarded on a whole other level....you'd have to combine Downs syndrome with autism and a couple others just to get up to that level of retardedness. Then again, I just like saying retarded. Boobs
. I don't think that the US has shown any cause or reason (shutting people out) that the UN or EU has any standing to present this to anyone.
The US has shown a very causual attitude to switching off GPS when it suits it. Doing so is a life-threatening action for many people. How can the rest of the world trust the US with the Internet when it shows such disregard for the realities of global structures? They even opposed the rest of us building a backup system rather than, for example, saying "If you don't like our rules you're free to make your own system."
As an American, I would honestly like to know, "what has the UN done for the USA?"
If you mean, and I think a lot of Americans do mean this when askig that question, "What has the UN given the American economy that our armed forces couldn't have just taken when we wanted to", then the answer is "nothing". It has been involved in preventing several wars which may have ultimately resulted in the deaths of every American citizen, however. Some people might think that was of some value.
Then I would, in the same vain ask, "What has the USA done for teh UN?"
Vain indeed! I don't know what the US has done for the UN other than refuse to pay its dues, and vetoed more motions and blocked more actions than any other member. If the UN was a normal sort of club the US would have been asked to leave decades ago. But it's not - it's much more important than that even with the number of handicaps the US imposses on it.
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
If the U.N. represents the "world opinion" I say fuck the rest of the world. You heard me. These are people that constantly push for the United States to accept a treaty that would have it to disarm it's civilian population (and the bearing of arms is a protected right, so they are pushing for us to violate our people's civil rights), has pushed to have roughly 50% of this nations land seized from it's owners and turned into untouchable wilderness areas, and constantly badmouths us for enforcing things it tells us to enforce. And now, they want to take our Internet (which is already under the administration of a private, international organization)...by force.
Seems world opinion is...socialism, oppression, and theft. Gee what a wonderful world we live in. But it's all for our own good right? Fucking nanny States....not even our Nanny State!
Fuck them. Fuck them up their stupid asses.
Many people view the UN as an attempt at a World Government. We are automatically suspicious of everything that the UN does or says. The EU creates a new dynamic in the UN that was not there before, because the EU is comprised of multiple countries united together, that gives this EU entity multiple seats at the UN. The US and a few others still have veto power. But that still does not mean the US is on equal footing with the EU when it comes to UN affairs.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Even if you can successfully make the case that some body more "international" than ICANN should be running things, I wonder *why* you would want that body to be under the control of the UN.
The UN! Where China has a veto and counties led by dictators are known to work as a block and try to pass resolutions that attact democracies. Isn't China exerting enough influence already (getting Google, MSN, et al. to block news about "democracy" and "freedom")?
The UN! Yes, lets give our free-est form of communication over to a government representing other governments to control.
FTA: "Governments will only be involved where they need to be and only on issues setting the top-level framework."
*where they need to be* that sounds reassuring.
1/2 of the US doesn't use the Internet and could care less about being isolated, they would resist the UN trying to force something even if they don't use it. How many of the other half that does use the Internet regularly accesses international sites anyway? Home grown porn is as good as freaky stuff from Asia anyway.
The problem is Freedom of speech, thought, and expression. The free exchange of ideas, the rights of people to express themselves openly and freely with other people around the world.
These are all things the EU and all the other complainers are opposed to. Freedom thwarts their plans, so they need it stamped out.
You analogies are flawed.
The US can't own the 'Internet' anymore than anyone can own the inventions you listed. We can make our own televisions, right? They can make their own Internet.
It's not about being a dick. What are you, 12 years old? There are serious considerations in not letting the UN, or any other foreign institution having control over something we created and is of enormous economic and military signifigance.
As usual, Europe is using the UN as a proxy to compensate for their obvious weaknesses. We've driven the growth of the internet, and everyone else wants a free ride.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Turning the internet over to a non-U.S. body could be seen as "abridging the freedom of speech" of its citizens. Therefore, turning over control to the U.N. or to another entity voluntarily simply can't be done legally.
They'll get my encryption algorithm when they pry it from my cold, dead hard drive.
i think the cause of this split has more to do with the rest of the world getting increasingly dissolutioned and pissed with the us than with any specific internet-management issue.
so we've ignored most of the what the world thinks is right and are hell-bent on doing everything our own way. Well, fine - just that we shouldn't be surprised when the rest of the world ceases to cooperate with us.
"The Guardian is reporting that the EU, obviously unimpressed with Linus Torvalds' and the OSDL's refusal to relinguish control of the Linux operating system, will be forming several comittees and forums with a mind to forcibly remove control of Linux from Torvalds and the OSDL." From the article: "Old allies in world politics, representatives from the UK and US sat just feet away from each other, but all looked straight ahead as Hendon explained the EU had decided to end Torvald's unilateral control of the Linux kernel and put in place a new body that would now develop this revolutionary operating system. The issue of who should control Linux had proved an extremely divisive issue, and for 11 days the world's governments traded blows. For the vast majority of people who use Linux, the only real concern is obtaining it. But with Linux now being essential to countries' basic infrastructures - the question of who has control has become critical."
This should bring a unique perspective to the situation. Taking into account that the Internet was originally a collection of US government and academic networks, was created and merged at the cost of US taxpayers, and that things like ICANN are private entities (of which the UN/EU want to take ownership over), this should be somewhat similar.
-eventhorizon
#Secret Windows Source Code, in MS C% - if (uptime >= "24 hours") then bsod() else print "Windows License Violation!"
We should already be out. It's not like the whole world doesn't hate us anyway. "Force" control? LoL. Good luck fuckers!