Posted on 11/15/2005 8:54:04 AM PST by ncountylee
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) Negotiators seeking to avert a U.S.-EU showdown at this week's U.N. summit on the information society watered down language on the Internet's governance in talks Tuesday.
U.S. officials considered the vague language a signal that world leaders would ultimately agree to leaving the U.S. Commerce Department ultimately in charge of the Internet's addressing system.
"We're waiting until they pass something we can accept," said U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Michael Gallagher.
Diplomats are eager to reach agreement before Wednesday's start of the World Summit on the Information Society, which is scheduled to last through Friday.
The summit was originally conceived to address the digital divide the gap between information haves and have-nots by raising both consciousness and funds for projects.
Instead, it has centered largely around Internet governance: oversight of the main computers that control traffic on the Internet by acting as its master directories so Web browsers and e-mail programs can find other computers.
That job is handled by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, a quasi-independent group that ultimately answers to the U.S. government.
Since the latest round of talks began Sunday, the specific wording of the summit's draft declaration has evolved from "international management of the Internet," written by Pakistan, to far less specific language.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Hey Kofi, go build your own internet if you want one.
Reuters
FWIW, according to an article in our local paper this morning, Canada is supporting continuing U.S. control over the Internet. The problem with U.N. control is that countries like China and Cuba would push for censorship.
The support of Canada was largely due to the massive output of data by Minister Terrance of cultural affairs and Minister Phillip of the gas trust who explained the ramifications of UN control of the internet in no uncertain terms.
So would Canada.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.