Slashdot Mirror
How The U.S. Government Undermined the Internet
sakshale writes "The Register has an article about U.S. Government backed policy changes that have led ICANN to redelegate top level domains in such a way as to provide 'greater state-controlled censorship on the internet, reduce people's ability to use the internet to communicate freely, and leave expansion of the internet in the hands of the people least capable of doing the job'" More from the article: "At that meeting, consciously and for the first time, ICANN used a US government-provided reason to turn over Kazakhstan's internet ownership to a government owned and run association without requiring consent from the existing owners. The previous owners, KazNIC, had been created from the country's Internet community. ICANN then immediately used that 'precedent' to hand ownership of Iraq's internet over to another government-run body, without accounting for any objections that the existing owners might have."
Slashdot needs a "saw that coming from a mile away" category
They replied, "because ICANN"
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Whoop-de-do.
If this is news to you in 2005, you need to read the front-page of a newspaper once in a while.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
> Did I miss something else in the article?
Yes, the fact that its a slow news week.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
Ah, so that's why Linux was written. Linus was really a time-traveller from Finland's porn-starved future, sent back in time to alter the course of history and get Finland an OC-3.
--
I Hit the Karma Cap, and All I Got Was This Lousy
I'm sure when I'm 85 years old this is exactly what I'll remember about 2005.
As of 2005, in Kazakhstan, women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hat, and age of consent has been raised to eight years old.
Very niiice! High five!
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Grotesquely-attired monster struggles in ingenious, home-made trap.
Fred: "Now let's see who's really trying to control the Internet!"
Fred pulls off mask.
Velma: Jinkies!
Shaggy: Zoinks!
Daphne: Why it's...
All (in unison): Jack Thompson!
Thompson: I have to save the world from itself! Too much garbage on the Internet, perverting the minds of our children! And I'd have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling kids!
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
What an odd comment from someone who READS SLASHDOT.
On that note, does anybody know where I can find the official hierarchy of causes?
From Chapter 7 of the Karma Whorer's Manual:
In order of precedence, and to maximize your karma-whoring potential, you should always speak out against the first thing you find on the list:
1. Microsoft
2. The US Government
3. The military
4. The patent system
5. The republicans
6. Any government agency collecting information via the internet
7. emacs
8. karma-whores
9. Jack Thompson
10. CowboyNeal
I have a real hard time deciding which group I dislike most: Leftist-Communist-Socialist Utopians who don't understand micro-economic supply and demand theory, Libertarian-Anarchist Utopians who don't understand public choice theory, public goods, and transaction cost aspects of modern economics, or Rightist-Christian-Fascist Utopians who don't understand much of, well, anything. A pox on all Utopians! I live in the USofA and I'm pretty happy with the system as it stands. Could it be better? Of course it could! But not by creating a system modeled on $UTOPIA. I will grant that utopians do provide a service. There are enough of them around with enough different ideas of what makes a perfect society that new ideas and concerns are always revitalizing the real non-utopian society that the majority has chosen. And fortunately, we have enough different and contradictory utopian idealists around that no single bunch is able to take over for long enough that we can't recover from their inevitable screwups.
FreeSpeech.org
Yes, cats do recognize ownership. If it's not nailed down and covered in cat repellent, they own it. In total disregard for US law, cats also own humans.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
You try rubbing your face on a domain name.