[IP] more on American dominance of the Internet, redux
Begin forwarded message:
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 16, 2005 10:40:46 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: lauren@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] more on American dominance of the Internet, redux
From: Dan Lynch <dan@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 16, 2005 6:29:39 PM EDT
...
So, as Esther suggests, leaving it twisting in the wind is good for
all of us ordinary Netizens.
Dave,
The rope that we're twisting on has become extremely frayed. While
it might be comforting for some observers to wish that the "slightly
illegitimate" status quo could be maintained, that is not to be
for much longer.
As the old nightmarish lullaby goes:
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall
And down will come baby, cradle and all.
If we want to have any say as to who or what is going to "catch" our
baby -- the Internet -- the first step is to accept that neither
ICANN nor the U.N. are acceptable stewards of the evolving Net.
We should start from scratch with the needs of all stakeholders --
especially ordinary Internet users at the mercy of their ISPs --
taken into account.
Twisting in the breeze is both unsustainable and unacceptable.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@xxxxxxxx or lauren@xxxxxxxxxx or lauren@xxxxxxxx
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, EEPI
- Electronic Entertainment Policy Initiative - http://www.eepi.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com
- - -
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dan Lynch <dan@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 16, 2005 6:29:39 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Esther Dyson <edyson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on American dominance of the Internet, redux
Esther has it right: what we have with ICANN is the best we could
hope for
-- a slightly illegitimate overseer of some technical functions that
make
the Internet glue stick when it should stick. Jon Postel used to do
that
just fine, but he died and we knew that day would eventually come and
we all
knew Jon was a benign dictator with a huge intellect and no committee
could
ever replace his wisdom. So, as Esther suggests, leaving it twisting
in the
wind is good for all of us ordinary Netizens.
Dan
On 10/15/05 3:39 PM, "David Farber" <dave@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Begin forwarded message:
From: Esther Dyson <edyson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 15, 2005 5:24:20 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] American dominance of the Internet, redux
Another take on all this... (primarily for those following the issue
closely, because it leaves out a lot of background)
I'm planning to post it, but I may change it if I learn something new
in the meantime.
Esther
ICANN - In praise of illegitimacy
One place I am *not* going, however, is Tunisia
despite all the
excitement over WSIS, which stands for World Summit on the
Information Society <http://www.itu.int/wsis/>http://www.itu.int/
wsis/, taking place in Tunis November 16 to 18. But of course, WSIS
is more than just an event. It’s a series of “processes,” the term
bureaucrats use for meetings and conference calls. The main thrust
of WSIS is that ICANN <http://www.icann.org/>www.icann.org – which
sets policy for the Domain Name System and which I chaired in its
start-up phase, 1998-2000 – is fundamentally US-dominated and should
be brought under proper, legitimate, international control,
accountable to all the people of the world. I beg to disagree. You
can argue about the details, but yes, ICANN is to some extent under
US control, even though it has a thoroughly international board and
lots of other checks and balances. It mostly acts on its own but it
does have a contract with the US government tat gives it what little
authority it has
plus general agreement by most domain-name
registrars and registries to follow its rules for lack of any other
authority. You may think that's a slightly unstable situation, and
indeed it is. The US would *like* to give up control (ICANN is a hot
potato), but only to an organization it trusts.
There’s the rub. The US doesn’t – and personally I don’t – trust any
other organization to take over ICANN, although we have different
reasons. (I also know that if the US tried to impose its will on the
Internet more broadly through ICANN, it would meet proper, quick and
strong resistance.)
Indeed, the very whiff of illegitimacy around ICANN is its saving
grace. Suppose some body emerged that was generally considered to be
legitimate, and that could tightly control the DNS through ICANN. If
it was legitimate, what would stop it from doing much more? It could
quickly set new, broad rules governing “appropriate” content,
intellectual property rights, “suitability” for domain name ownership
and because it was legitimate, it would be hard to stop it.
The biggest danger for ICANN is indeed that it become “legitimate”
and way too powerful. Its current slightly off-kilter authority
keeps it from amassing power and from attracting the inevitable
power-hungry forces that would abuse that power. In short, I’m not
so much in favor of US control as I am in favor of the current status
quo of uncertain, dis-armed control.
Esther Dyson Always make new mistakes!
Editor, Release 1.0
CNET Networks
104 Fifth Avenue (at 16th Street)
New York, NY 10011 USA
+1 (212) 924-8800
When 2.0 Workshop, Stanford, California, December 6: http://
www.release1-0.com/events/
current status (with pictures!) at http://www.flickr.com/photos/
edyson/
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