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How The U.S. Government Undermined the Internet

Posted by Zonk on from the we're-a-long-way-from-darpanet dept.

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."

3 of 394 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's a consensus... we change change it by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 1, Troll

    Your first question seems to be the contention in the article. The domains in question are Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs). Country Code domains are considered to represent the country it is assigned to, and it is considered the "property" of the country and the government of said country.

    In the past and for various reasons, some countries allowed their domains to be run by others, including individuals and organizations.

    The article takes issue with countries taking back the control of the domain.

    Near as I can tell, the writer of the article believes that the currently holder of a ccTLD is the "rightful owner". The U.S. and ICANN believe the current government of the country is the "rightful owner".

    When it comes to ccTLDs I believe that the government of the country is the rightful owner. The current holders, or perhaps controllers is a better word, do so at the pleasure of the country.

    --
    There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
  2. Re:WTF - the US gov't CREATED the internet by nagora · · Score: 0, Troll
    For all the little kiddies out there who were still in diapers when the US Gov't did the research, defined the protocols, and funded the construction that BUILT the original internet, here's a clue. The US magnanimously shared its incredible invention witht the rest of the world for the good of mankind.

    Fuck off. What asshole modded this bullshit "insightful"? The Internet stopped being a US invention about the time the fourth computer was connected to it. The protocols and systems which make up today's version of that early network are derived from massive amounts of time a research by scientists and engineers from just about every country in the world.

    If only the US had been involved in the design of the Internet no one outside of academia would ever have heard of it. If you can't kill people with it America isn't interested in it.

    TWW

    --
    "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  3. Re:WTF - the US gov't CREATED the internet by abelsson · · Score: 0, Troll

    In that case, we in Europe want full control all our inventions that we so generously have shared with the rest of the world. How about all your cars, radio, the english language, the web, democracy and the whole concept of science to begin with?

    The fact is, the Internet is no more propery of the US than the worlds phone system is. The US certainly didn't chip in when I dug the fiber to my house. Arrogant fucks like you are the very reason why the DNS should not be controlled by any one nation.