UN Plan for Internet Control Tiptoes Forward

Intellectual Conservative ^ | 21 April 2004 | Cheryl Chumley

[softengine]

"...but this body will also be in position to impose whatever access and usage fees deemed necessary for the good of all, regulate business, and oversee all content placed on the Internet for public access."

Control over content would be the coup d'etat, and certain death to sites like FreeRepublic.

[zip]

ping

[kcar]

WWon't happen, but worst case, just create a new internet and leave them holding the porn-laden bag?

[Dark Knight]

Kofi: We need to start an Internet for Food program!

DK

[this_ol_patriot]

I wonder if those Nigerian guys know about this?

[Bogey78O]

What would stop ISP's from disconnecting from the internet and creating a new internet? Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't that actually be better since the advancements in backbone technology would be a boon to it?

[glorgau]

They've already thought up a name for the UN controlled internet - it's called Minitel!

[JRandomFreeper]

...but worst case, just create a new internet and leave them holding the porn-laden bag?

I have thought through that scenario. Some smart pup would bridge between the two internets with a Timex Z-80, or S-100 box, or a Cray, or something, just so he could get his porn, and suddenly, there is once again... one internet.

In every thought experiment I have run, there is exactly one internet per populated planet, and no government can control it.

Intranets are subsets, and generally have serious problems in not merging with the internet. A parallel internet will eventually merge with the other. There can be only one.

/john

[Bogey78O]

Minitel doesn't sound that special. Bell had a huge closed network long ago. They still do. In fact up till a few months ago when our old dedicated terminal went down I used to pull down LMOS trouble tickets on it.

[Warlord David]

Control over content would be the coup d'etat, and certain death to sites like FreeRepublic.

I agree. It would also be the death of conservative christians sites that would not be politically correct in content, to what the UN point of view is. Making it impossible to evangelize thru the internet.

[Tax Government]

What they want to do is tax the exchange of information and ideas.

[kcar]

Monte Carlo simulations in your head? My eyes glaze over thinking about it. But doesn't this creativity that inadvertently integrates bipolar systems also mean that there's a snowball's chance in the Sahara of successfully "controlling" it in the first place?

[JRandomFreeper]

What would stop ISP's from disconnecting from the internet and creating a new internet? Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't that actually be better since the advancements in backbone technology would be a boon to it?

Your question presupposes some misconceptions. The internet isn't tied to any backbone (and never has been), it can use and does use and does upgrade itself as better paths become available. It started on phone lines. At 300-1200 baud between nodes.

The internet isn't a thing, a place, or a service. It's an agreement on how to communicate. And that's all it is.

And that's really difficult to control, because, to control something, you have to be able to destroy it. And you can't destroy the internet. Ever. Without destroying the inhabitants (all of them) of the planet.

That's why Arapanet became the internet. It is nuke proof. So I'm not too worried about some UN socialists that can't hide their tracks on some oil-for-payola scheme.

/john

[RonHolzwarth]

reply to: "Intranets are subsets, and generally have serious problems in not merging with the internet. A parallel internet will eventually merge with the other. There can be only one."

Kind of reminds me of Abraham Lincoln, June 1858,
for some odd reason:

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South.

[Bogey78O]

What I was talking about disconnecting I was talking about just using new connecting nodes. Just disconeect from their pathways and create new ones.

[JRandomFreeper]

But doesn't this creativity that inadvertently integrates bipolar systems also mean that there's a snowball's chance in the Sahara of successfully "controlling" it in the first place?

No, I don't think so. At best, you may be able to control individual points by forensics, that is, by tracing the bits and hanging the barstid, but that's slow, and there's lots of barstids.

Our cold war thinkers were some of the best. Arapanet rocks. Especially in the 21st century. Who knew?

/john

[Army Air Corps]

Und zey vill haff ze final zay-zo on zose politikal zites, Ja?

[Army Air Corps]

"I wonder if those Nigerian guys know about this?"

I am representing a Government official who has monies in a Bank in Lagos. The monies are from the Nigerian National Internet Authority. As you know, the UN...

[William Terrell]

. . .and there's lots of barstids.

Ah, but the word gets around.

[Humidston]

"FOLLOW THE MONEY."