White House To Appoint "Internet Czar"

An anonymous reader writes "The Washington Post reports that President Obama is set to appoint a 'Cybersecurity czar with a broad mandate': 'The adviser will have the most comprehensive mandate granted to such an official to date and will probably be a member of the National Security Council but will report to the national security adviser as well as the senior White House economic adviser, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deliberations are not final. The announcement will coincide with the long-anticipated release of a 40-page report that evaluates the government's cybersecurity initiatives and policies. The report is intended to outline a "strategic vision" and the range of issues the new adviser must handle, but it will not delve into details, administration officials told reporters last month.' Cynics are expecting the appointee to be a lawyer for the RIAA."

Comments

I have a funny feeling

[elrous0]

Why do I suspect that this "czar" will spend about 10% of his time dealing with security issues and 90% of his time finding ways to help big media companies protect their IP from evil pirates, teenagers, and Youtube?

Re:I have a funny feeling

[gubers33]

10% of his time you dealing with security issues? He will spend all of his time on security issues because everyone knows the biggest threat to America are the pirates of multimedia with their Limewire and BitTorrent. All of the people attempting to hack into the DoD, Bank of America and so forth come in a distant second so he will just ignore them.

Re:I have a funny feeling

[Shakrai]

Why do I suspect that this "czar" will spend about 10% of his time dealing with security issues and 90% of his time finding ways to help big media companies protect their IP from evil pirates, teenagers, and Youtube?

Why do I have a feeling that this "czar" will accomplish nothing on either of those fronts and will prove to be as effective as all the other "czars" that have come before him?

Re:I have a funny feeling

[jerep]

Because 90% of what the government already does is to help big corporations?

Re:I have a funny feeling

[click2005]

All of the people attempting to hack into the DoD, Bank of America and so forth come in a distant second so he will just ignore them.

He/She wont ignore them... They will make great headlines, followed by lots of promises to regulate/police the internet to protect american (business) interests.

WTF "Czars"

[R2.0]

Is it really that necessary to appoint a czar fro EVERY issue? I'm waiting for the Toilet Paper Czar, who will coordinate government efforts to regulate both the orientation of the roll in the holder as well as the direction of wipe.

Re:WTF "Czars"

[Shakrai]

I'm waiting for the Toilet Paper Czar, who will coordinate government efforts to regulate both the orientation of the roll in the holder as well as the direction of wipe.

Nah, I like the idea I heard in another article. We need a Czar Czar to coordinate the activities of all of the Czar's that we are appointing ;)

Re:WTF "Czars"

[coopaq]

Yo Dawg! I heard you like Czars. So we put a Czar in your Czar so you can be be censored while being censored!

Re:WTF "Czars"

[jpmorgan]

Czars have a mandate and little authority, they're not supposed to actually accomplish anything. They get appointed for two reasons:

1. To give the appearance of activity without actually doing anything. ("Of course we care about issue X! We appointed a czar to oversee it.")

2. To reward allies and contributors with plum patronage positions but few actual responsibilities to worry about.

The "best" part is everybody cynically expects them to fail, so there's no complaint or comment when the appointee accomplishes nothing. It's really quite brilliant... Bush's mistake was making patronage appointments to positions which actually hold responsibilities, like managing FEMA.

More Cynicism

[eldavojohn]

Having the adviser report to both the national security and economic advisers suggests that the White House is seeking to ensure a balance between homeland security and economic concerns, the sources said.

Economic concerns like what? The fact that internet commerce explodes on Cyber Monday as consumers and businesses enjoy a wealth of increased buying/spending? Or would you so happen to be referring to economic concerns like the MPAA/RIAA are short one ivory back scratcher? Perhaps the concerns that all that internet commerce is happening with most of it untaxed? Maybe concerns that used books, DVDs and games are being sold increasingly with a down-turned economy?

I am certain the economic concerns you speak of are only economic concerns of lobbyists when you should maybe be paying attention to what consumers are interested in?

You want to help the consumer, you should mandate that proprietary DRM violates anti-trust laws as it locks consumers into the software and hardware associated with their music service. Or maybe you should look into allowing people to use whatever level of encryption they want to secure their financial transactions? Nah, nobody's paying you for that.

Throw on top of that the fact that Biden's good friends with the MPAA and RIAA (and I'm sure Obama's not far behind) there may be cause for concern.

Re:More Cynicism

[jshackney]

Perhaps the concerns that all that internet commerce is happening with most of it untaxed?

BINGO!!!

This Czar's job is to figure out how the government is going to get their piece of the pie. Don't be fooled into thinking otherwise.

XKCD

[Anonymous Coward]

http://xkcd.com/494/
through
http://xkcd.com/498/

Re:I'm really sick to death of Czars

[R2.0]

"You mean something like a king?"

Being of Italian descent, I'm partial to "Caesar." But that's a bit of a mouthful for the one-syllable-only press, so we could shorten it to Cs...wait a minute...uh, nevermind.

Re:I'm really sick to death of Czars

[Cyberax]

"Czar" title has a distinct advantage. Czars were abolished when the last of them had been put against a wall and the shot.

It's Corporate America, Baby!

[RobotRunAmok]

We need someone to scapegoat and fire today when fundamental errors made 20 years ago finally become manifest.

That's how we roll.

Re:I'm really sick to death of Czars

[owlnation]

The advantage of a Czar is that it's much more fun to overthrow them than a king. Just ask Lenin.

I think in this case the parallels with the excess and oppression of imperial Czars, and the ruling of the Internet, will be quite apt.

Of course it's just as likely that this new Czar will be just as effective as other previous government Czars. The Drugs Czar for example. Since being appointed in 1982 we can congratulate the holders of that office as having done a great job. There is now no drug problem whatsoever, as everyone knows.

ENOUGH WITH THE FUCKING "CZAR" TITLE!!!

[ScooterComputer]

Dammit these people in power in America piss me off. STOP USING THE TERM 'CZAR', 'TSAR', whatever! STOP STOP STOP.

I can't wait until a President is ready to march to Congress and appoint Der Fuehrer of Alternative Energy, which would prove that they have no clue what these titles mean to people around the world as well as citizens in our own country. I doubt Obama would appoint an Imperial Wizard of Credit Debt or Grand Dragon of Terrorism.

The term 'Czar' relates to a despicable history of oppression and murder. The term itself comes from Caesar, not exactly a bright point in Europe's history. There are better terms, and we as a Democratic people are more creative than this.