Slashdot Mirror
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."
Kofi Annan's son is announced to be the director of the UN program for issuance of domain names. In other news three months later, Kofi Annan's son is embroiled in a legal battle for kickbacks associated with squatting on domain names and selling the pilfered goods to the highest bidder. Finally the Vatican rejoices over pornography being outlawed in cyberspace.
Has anyone asked/answerd why the UN want's control of the Internet?
My guess is that the oil for food scam went so well (billions of dollars stolen) that more of the UN wants in on such a deal. And what better way to get your fingers into billions of dollars of commerce than to get control of the Internet. The members of the UN committee that run the Internet will be able to tax all the countries (primarly the richest ones) to setup infrastructure to run and monitor the whole Internet. This is not a simple or easy thing so they will require billions if not trillions of dollars to set this up. Of course they will get all the votes they need to do this by promising inexpensive or free Internet access to all the third world countries (as well as a small taste of the trillions to be taken).
So it is just another grab for money. Now what I want to know is how the UN would do things any differently?
Lead develoKpers