"Our leader, Abu Annan, says we don't need no stinking end of terrorism OR slavery
or BOMBINGS or killings of you Saturday or Sunday people.
So why dont you dhimmis just give up, like the French have. Give us your Internet, NOW!!!!"
TOMORROW
Posted on 12/06/2003 12:58:44 PM PST by demlosers
LONDON (Reuters) - A controversial plan to grant governments broad controls over the Internet has stolen the spotlight of a United Nations conference on IT next week, where China and Cuba will be among its strongest supporters.
Leaders from nearly 200 countries will convene in Geneva for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) on December 10-12, an inaugural conference with lofty goals to discuss bridging the digital divide and fostering press freedoms.
But a contentious political move to grant an international governing body such as the U.N.'s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) control over Internet governance issues -- from distributing Web site domains to the public to fighting spam -- has all but obscured the more virtuous aspects of the event.
Incubated in a geeky part of the U.S. Department of Defense decades ago, the Internet has become a thriving global marketplace since being fully turned over to the private business community in the early 1990s.
But many in the developing world believe a new approach is needed as the medium enters its teen years, one that will see poorer countries harness new technologies to improve their competitive stance.
ATTACKING STATUS QUO
The most recognisable Internet governance body is a California-based non-profit company, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Under the new plan, it has the most to lose.
Incorporated in 1998, ICANN oversees management of the Internet's crucial addressing system which matches numerical addresses to familiar Web site addresses such as www.google.com.
While ICANN's oversight has been confined to the decidedly technical matters behind doling out domain names and establishing a domain name dispute resolution system, the group has been criticised roundly for adopting a pro-business approach that neglects the developing world.
The ITU, a 138-year-old trade body that among other things established country code rules for international telephone dialling, has been put forth by the developing world as the governing body that will best address its needs.
"What we are looking at is the future management of the Internet. It's not about who owns it or who will be regulating the laws, but what is best way to manage what has become a natural resource for all of humanity," a summit official said.
But U.N. officials have distanced themselves from some of the more radical suggestions put forth by member states who would like to see planet-spanning controls on content and taxes.
Still, proponents of the status quo are concerned that tinkering with the Internet now could stifle the medium's commercial potential.
"We do see a role for governments, as is recognised in ICANN's structure. However, we are concerned with any efforts to increase governmental involvement at the expense of private sector leadership," Theresa Swinehart, Counsel for International Legal Affairs for ICANN, told Reuters.
So far, a change in leadership has been bogged down by fractious discussion with a definitive resolution not expected until 2005 when the second WSIS summit is held in Tunisia.
But many believe the new guard has already arrived.
"We are seeing a clear shift from the mid-90s when governments were told to stay away," said Michael Geist, a law professor at University of Ottawa who specialises in Internet governance issues.
"Governments have shown they are very interested in getting involved on a domestic level and now they are looking at the international level."
Replace "management" with "theft", and we have a truthful statement.
"Our leader, Abu Annan, says we don't need no stinking end of terrorism OR slavery
or BOMBINGS or killings of you Saturday or Sunday people.
So why dont you dhimmis just give up, like the French have. Give us your Internet, NOW!!!!"
TOMORROW
Until that sad day I am free to say: "Hillary: You lying, neo-Stalinist, manipulative, shrill, obnoxious, deceitful, trecherous, destructive, hateful, power-mad, dishonest, corrupt, bribe-taking, bribe-giving, traitorous, anti-American, divisive Uber-Shyster!!"
Or anything else I choose to say!
This is a perfect example of the socialist paradigm under which these people operate. The internet is nothing like a natural resource, that is, it doesn't simply exist, it was built, and there were costs and issues of ownership attendent to its construction.
The idea here is that wealth isn't created, it merely exists, and it is the function of government to apportion it as if it were a pie. Not even Karl Marx went that far. He, at least, recognized the difference between a true "natural resource" and a manufactured good. But the pie analogy is appropriate - someone has to purchase the ingredients and bake a real pie for these self-appointed guardians of the public good to distribute. To them it just magically appears, and once it's eaten, will once again magically appear.
These idiots have ruined the economies of every rising state they've taken over. And they do want the world, they literally do.
China and Cuba, eh?
Let's see, the 2 strongest proponents of Government control are the 2 strongest proponents of central control over the internet.
Why am I not surprised?
Lest the impossible happens and Dubya' gets ousted by one of the fab 7, it ain't gonna happen with our support.
Every business I went to in the mainland(beyond the economic zones, in the 3rd world areas) had fully functioning and open internet connections. I browsed FR from there any number of times and likely will again on the next trip in January.
The internet is one of the primary reasons why so many businesses can operate in China. Good, bad or indifferent, if you cut off China, there will be a MASSIVE hue and cry from business and likely some de-investment in China.
For example, one thing my company does is to have letters printed in China, inserted, sorted and sealed. The letters then go on the water and land on the west coast. Start to finish, takes about three and a half weeks. The name lists are generated live and transferred via FTP to the printer who begins almost immediately. Without the internet, you're adding at least 48 hours to the process and in reality, it's probably a week by the time you would burn CDs, overnight them to Hong Kong and drive them into the mainland. You're risking problems with the CD, problems with transit and printing data that is now older than it could have been. Time is money, that few days does matter.
I'm sure other companies that do live transactions with databases maintained in the USA would be drastically affected.
Don't get me wrong here, I'm all for telling the Chinese to go stuff a wonton, but the internet is definitely important to international businesses operating in China, and as far as I can tell, the censors don't block anything. I even did a search for Falun Gong, no problemo, I could hit every site that google listed. Of course, the reds may have shown up the next day after I left. heh.
I thought it the DARPANET originally, for Defense Advanced Research Projects. That's what we called it at the University of Illinois in the 1970's.
Well that sucks for the average Chinese person who are filtered/censored by Intranets. While the foreign business man and Communist party officials get full Internet access.
I hope those totalitarian sycophants in charge fears do come soon true.
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