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Lessig on Internet Governance
tcd004 writes "Should the United Nations control the Internet? That's the subject of a heated debate slated to take place at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis later this month. The European Union is pressing for a U.N. role in governing the Internet, which is currently in the hands of a U.S. nonprofit. Lawrence Lessig breaks down the debate and offers his views. An interesting point: in order to participate in Summit-related events Lessig had to promise not to talk about intellectual property." From the article: "What people are afraid of is that there will be a split within the single hierarchical system which would result in two different populations of the dot-com domain name system existing out there. Then there would be a real conflict. My view is that if in fact there is a separation like that, there are a lot of incentives for these two separate roots to figure out a way to coexist. There would be lots of anger [when] you realize that you're not getting the IBM.com you expected. But there's no reason why you couldn't have multiple root systems."
The UN should have no control over it. The corruption in the UN would ruin it and potentially put all networks at risk. Having governments vote on issues affecting the Internet is asking for trouble. The only remaining super power should control it and that is just as it is and should be. The UN can start their own Internet.
typical /.er advocate for free as beer, free unlimited access to information and avoidance of coorporate domination.... But for lot of guys like you seems ok that usa CONTROLS the root servers. don't you see the irony here?????.
Let me try to make this clear. I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT WHO INVENTED THE FIRST INTERNET VERSION. These days the internet is vital as air, so nobody should have CONTROL of it. It's truly obvious that any decision regarding root servers should be taken in a recognized entity like UN.
DON'T STEAL MUSIC!
Oh another racist!
Ofcourse there is no other country or organization capable of doing a better job than USA, admitting to that would be to admit that you are brainwashed, kind of like getting an alcoholic to admit he is an alcoholic, not easy even though everyone else sees it.
If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
However it isn't right to demand that the US give up their DNS systems. The "but everyone uses it" argument isn't compelling. Everyone uses Google too, that doesn't mean that they should be forced to give themselves up to the UN.
Exactly, if the EU wasn't a bunch of damn commies we wouldn't be having this discussion!
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Sorry, but your comparing the 'progress of global vehicle headlight standards to LED's' to that of 'Governing the INTERNET'????
How did this get modded 'Insightful'?? Honestly??
I don't know what you were thinking when writing that post, but please, for safety's sake, PLEASE STOP POSTING ON SLASHDOT!!!!!!
You dumb down an otherwise serious issue to the likes of which no sane person should respond to.
/yes i'm detached
And just maybe they should have thought of that before sinking the $$$ into the 'net, since after all it is connected to those nasty bastards in the USA. Tell me again why looking out for your own interests isn't a good thing? Oh yeah, because you're a sensitive emasculated girly-man (you like ad-homs? there's one for ya, chump-change). Were the root servers manipulated during Gulf War II? Were they manipulated after 9/11? Didn't think so.
Yes, I've read quite a bit about the U.N. and its precursor, the League of Nations (both pretty much spineless, thankfully). It seems as though the U.N. wishes to acquire (oops, there goes that nasty anthropomorphizing again) more power in an economically sensitive area to the U.S. Given the history of other countries wishing to use it as an "equalizer" to counter U.S. hegemony, I don't see why we should give them the time of day, let alone control of the root servers. And no, I'm not absolving the U.S. of being dickheaded with the veto or anything else: I still maintain that we should still act in our own best interest regardless of other's opinions.
Leave. And no, I'm not joking. Economic warfare is where it's at in the 21st century, and there's no way in hell we should risk part of our infrastructure to appease what is largely a bunch of European whining. China is coming up strong and fast and we need every advantage we can lay hands on. Being nice at the end of the day simply isn't going to cut it.
We seriously need a root server split just to get over this, otherwise there will be no resolution to everybody's (as in the countries involved) satisfaction. Economic impact? Sure, it'll be nasty at first, until a cottage industry of DNS proxies make their appearance... "Dial-a-root" if you will.
1st off the UN is evil. 2nd the USA created the internet ... thus we own it.