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India's Proposal For Government Control of Internet To Be Discussed In Geneva
First time accepted submitter cvenky writes "The Indian Government is proposing to create an intergovernmental body 'to develop internet policies, oversee all internet standards bodies and policy organizations, negotiate internet-related treaties and sit in judgment when internet-related disputes come up.' This committee will be funded and staffed by the UN and will report to the UN General Assembly which effectively means the control of the internet passes on to World Governments directly."
By the same token, Mercedes-Benz invented the car, why should you have one?
By the same token, Mercedes-Benz invented the car, why should you have one?
Are you fucking high?! America invented the car!
In fact you're lucky we even let you exist, America invented people!
India: "Hey, has anybody thought we should try controlling the 'net more?"
Korea: "Nah, that's a terrible idea. Maybe a law keeping ISPs from blocking stuff they don't like would be better."
Germany: "Yeah, that sounds good."
Sweden: "Add a clause telling the movie and music companies to stop suing people for more money than some of *us* have, and you'll get my vote!"
Eritrea: "Hear, hear!"
And then the law gets passed and nobody messed with the internet again and we all live happily ever after, the end. ...
Hey, if *they* get to talk about *their* crazy future scenarios, I get to talk about mine.
Is a European lecturing us on fiscal discipline? Let the flame wars begin!
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
And letting in the US is better ?
SOPA
PIPA
ACTA
Trans Pacific Trade Agreement ?
Give me a break. There is no government, no government on earth that wants a true free internet.
So in my view its better these governments "fight" each other and leave the internet alone (mostly) than have them banded together and destroy it with certainty.
What kind of a lunatic creates a web page consisting of 94 individual flash animations??? It's like Hamster Dance!!!
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
The US has done far, far worse than expected, ICANN has shown that they really can't and the FCC has utterly destroyed any possibility of it doing anything by treating the Internet as not a communication system. The major ISPs are acting like gangsters, using extortion and running protection rackets via the death of network neutrality.
Leaving it where it is WILL kill the Internet as we know it. You WILL lose what freedoms you still have, if power doesn't shift soon.
I don't know if the UN will do any better, but they sure as hell can't do worse and there are no other international organizations capable of the task.
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)
Speaking as an Indian, I can safely say that we as a country don't deserve to have ANY control over the Internet. The US might not smell of roses, but compared to an authoritarian style government like India, they're pretty damn good.
Actually scratch that. The Indian government is not authoritarian. It's just...stupid and uninformed and clueless. Ditto for most of the population.
The US is about equal to all those you list in terms of civil rights, meaningful free speech (not just the playstuff that's actually allowed), levels of corruption and levels of actual democracy.
I agree that none of those listed should have a voice, but by the same standard neither should the US. At present, the US has very near absolute power. The GA may have depraved and corrupt elements, but on aggregate it's no worse than the US on any metric and at times is a whole lot better.
Ideally, the Internet would be run by a meritocratic UN group, with all nations recognizing and respecting a group that chooses members by merit and acts on merit. There have been *cough* enough incidents where nations (US included) have actively sought to cripple meritocratic groups that I do not believe such a group could function. It would lack the teeth necessary to impose its decisions and to work it would need Predator X-like teeth.
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)
Setup a different set of root servers. Start out by mirroring the ICANN root file to your root authority, and then passing that to your servers. Then maybe talk to ICANN about splitting authority over the root zone so your country/countries run the root for that part, ICANN for the rest.
Oh what's that? It is expensive and you'd rather just tell the US how to run it shit? Screw you then.
See the thing is right now the Internet doesn't have any global law over it, not even the US. It is all just a set of conventions. ICANN has the power because almost all DNS servers trust the root-servers.net roots, and they trust ICANN. However not only can you set up other roots, people have. Look at OpenNIC for one example. So while the US does have nominal de facto control, they have no de jure control and people can start ignoring them and building their own infrastructure any time they wish. It can even be an individual. You can run your very own root service, if you wish.
However, you start making it international law, then it is the kind of thing countries have to enforce, the sort of thing you can't just go your own way on. The people with guns will be saying what goes on.
So how about no, let's not have the UN in on it. Particularly since for all its faults, the US doesn't want to censor speech like China, Iran, and so on do and they all sit on the UN.
There are a lot of Indians in very high places in many global technology companies. No matter what passport they are carrying, all of them are VERY VERY LOYAL to their homeland, India.
The influential Indian diaspora might just be the key for India to push its _Gag-the-Net_ agenda across the proposed global meeting in Geneva.
Solution: we employ guard cows in every server room. The Indians won't dare upset their sacred beasts. Problem solved!
Moreover, we hire people Dalits (Indian untouchable caste) as security. Now they can't even get into the building!
Hey, ain't nothin' wrong with using a country's ignorance against itself.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
Ideally, the Internet would be run by a meritocratic UN group, ...
No. Ideally it wouldn't be 'run' at all.
SOPA
Failed to pass.
PIPA
Failed to pass.
ACTA
Failed to pass (as of yet), seems unlikely.
Trans Pacific Trade Agreement
If you're talking about this, well, it's still up in the air. My cursory read of the articles tells me that it would mainly be about eliminating tariffs between South Asia countries. The cynic in me says that it's all about setting up cheap and exploitable labor in those countries to reduce costs.
And okay, that's where we failed. Shit like NAFTA has, ironically, put the people it was supposed to help out of business (such as Mexican corn farmers, a lot of whom now grow something else entirely). But our government has always been pretty shitty about stuff like this, but what are you gonna do? It won't affect an everyday American's ordinary life like SOPA, PIPA, or ACTA would, so you won't really see any action against it build up any sort of momentum, unfortunately.
tl;dr: America writes up shitty laws just like nearly every other country in history, but on the ones mentioned we're 3 for 4 in keeping those shitty laws from passing.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
Letting the US is better?
Compared to N. Korea, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia?
Um, YES, IT IS FUCKING BETTER!
The US isn't perfect, no one is saying that. No one is saying the US is the best. Compared to THOSE countries? Compared to the amount of freedom that can be found on MOST of the planet? Yes, the fucking US is better than that.
Jesus fucking christ and this drivel was modded INSIGHTFUL? You want some real problems with limitations and outright lack of free speech, travel *outside* the US for once in your miserable, small and meaningless little fucking life.
You've got most of Europe, the northern part of North America, Australia, and Japan & S. Korea. The rest of the world is pretty much fucking *shit*, and your rights mean *nothing*.
But hey, I'm sure you're right. I'm sure the US is every bit as much of an authoritarian shithole with no respect for human rights as China and North Korea. Totally.
Fucking idiot.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
Now now, we are getting a bit ahead of the line, aren't we ? "Guard cows", "Dalits", and most importantly your entire last line. I don't know where you get your ideas from, but you see India is an extremely diverse country. Yes, there are some places where cows are considered sacred and some people considered as untouchables, heck, people even kill their daughters for loving a boy of a "lower caste" But that's not the whole picture. Its just a common stereotype that the world has made of us. The rest of India is as "civilized" and modern with any other place. Now if we come to the topic at hand, there are talks going on to block some sites. In fact some service providers have already started blocking torrentz, piratebay, torrenthound etc. But again, a weak attempt. You can get the IP by pinging the site and the IP works ! Just a simple DNS block won't stop people from accessing websites. I only hope that the people trying to set the policies regain their senses, otherwise its the dark age all over again for us.
And yet it's still walking slower in that direction than anyone else.
I beg to disagree. I am Brazilian and although my country has a LOT of problems it is certainly not going in this direction faster than US. The same can be said about a lot of developing countries and even most of the European countries, with some exceptions (UK comes to my mind). US certainly has a lot of laws protecting free speech and such, but laws are useless if the price of justice is not affordable and its decisions are each day less technical and more political. Add that to the fact that even these failing laws are being eroded each day by absurd amendments and acts and you have a very bleak picture.
South Korea? You mean the former military dictatorship that dabbles in democracy but is practically run by industry giants?
Inventing something does not grant a right to control it later - otherwise, you would not need the FCC to allocate radio spectrum but leave that to Italy; and if Ford wanted to make changes to a car model they should ask Germany. And so on.
please mod parent post as informative . South Korea is run by Industry giants.
That won't work, the cows will eat the spinach, and then the Americans will eat the cows.
If wishing something happened made it so, then why didn't Obama change the US into a heaven on earth ? Frankly, I hope you're right. I just think you're wrong.
In India > 800 million people live on 2$ per day. Are you seriously suggesting they are progressive thinkers ? I'm not saying it's their doing or their fault or anything like that. I just find it really hard to believe it is any other way.