[WSIS CS-Plenary] NYT- Worldwide but Homegrown

[Richard Vincent]

Dear all,

Here is the latest editorial on the subject, a much more reasonable perspective, from the New York Times.

Rick Vincent

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New York Times
October 30, 2005
Editorial
Worldwide but Homegrown

Some foreign governments are uncomfortable with the United States' controlling the nuts and bolts of the Internet. That is understandable. So much of the success of the global economy depends on its smooth functioning and the United States has not been a model of receptiveness to other nations' concerns in recent years. There may be a multilateral solution down the road, but right now it is in everyone's best interest to keep control of the Internet where it was founded, in America.

American representatives will have a chance to ease the worries of America's allies and even its enemies at a digital-world gathering in Tunisia next month. It will take firmness, but also diplomacy.

Ideally, perhaps, a single nation should not control the essential workings of the Internet - notably the regulation of who gets which name and what the various "dot" addresses mean. But United States control is working. One suggestion, to switch control to the United Nations, would mean too many cooks in the kitchen, with several of the most interested chefs being of the unsavory sort, like China and Iran. China's model for the Internet includes filters, censorship and - recently, with the shameful help of Yahoo - surveillance leading to arrest.

Since 1998, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - a nonprofit based in California, but with an office in Brussels and an international board - has handled the complexities of domain names, Internet Protocol numbers and other technicalities. That way, the rest of us can surf and shop in peace, certain to find our favorite online shops or entertainment, whether we log on in Des Moines or Timbuktu. It has decided, for example, that this newspaper is to have the only Web site called www.nytimes.com. The nightmare outcome would be a balkanized Internet, where countries or regions set up their own Webs, leading to duplicate sites, confusion and a breakdown in the effectiveness of the global network. Reasonable people do not want to take that path, so it should be easy to avoid.

That also means, however, no meddling by the United States government in Icann's affairs. The recent fuss over the possible addition of a new top-level domain name for pornographic Web sites - .xxx instead of .com at the end of a Web address - played right into the hands of would-be regulators at the United Nations. Opponents of .xxx, including the conservative Family Research Council, sent nearly 6,000 letters to the Commerce Department over the summer, protesting the proposal. The department sent a letter to Icann asking it to delay a decision.

Regardless of the pros and cons of a top-level domain name for salacious sites (many pornographers, interestingly, are also against it because it would make it much easier to block their Web sites), the department's behavior looks a lot like political pressure. That sends the wrong message to moderates in Europe on the issue of Internet control. The United States should not give even the appearance of improper lobbying. If Americans cannot trust the system to run itself, they risk losing it.



Dr. Richard C. Vincent
Professor 
Department of Communication
Indiana State University
Terre Haute, IN 47809
U.S.A.

email: rvincent at indstate.edu
telephone: +1 812 237-3246
fax: +1 812 237-3217
>>> acarvin at edc.org 10/31/05 1:53 PM >>>
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The following WSIS-related article was posted recently on the US State 
Department website. US Ambassador David Gross will be conducting an 
online chat about WSIS on November 2 at 11:00 a.m. EST (1600 GMT). 
Participating is open to the public, but you need to register first by 
emailing iipchat at state.gov. They'll then supply you with the URL, login 
and password. -andy


United States Says No U.N. Body Should Control Internet
Ambassador Gross to discuss WSIS summit during Internet chat November 2
The U.N.-sponsored WSIS will convene on November 16-18 in Tunis, Tunisia

http://usinfo.state.gov/eur/Archive/2005/Oct/25-499.html

By Tim Receveur
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington * The United States says that transferring control of the 
Internet to the United Nations would stifle innovation with excessive 
bureaucracy and may help repressive regimes curtail free expression 
online, according to the U.S. coordinator for international 
communications and information policy.

In a November 2 Internet chat, Ambassador David Gross, the U.S. 
coordinator, will preview an upcoming summit on Internet governance and 
discuss his views on why the very nature of the Internet as an 
innovative and dynamic medium is at stake.

The United Nations-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society 
(WSIS) will convene on November 16-18 in Tunis, Tunisia, to discuss the 
future of Internet governance and ways to bring the benefits of 
technology to the developing world.

The Internet has become “an extraordinary mechanism for freedom of 
expression. Each year, publications are available on the Internet; 
people are able to directly communicate with them, with each other, 
through the Internet,” Gross said at a roundtable with journalists in 
Washington October 6.

The current system of Internet governance “is extraordinarily 
participatory,” he said. “Not just by other governments, which all of 
whom already played an important role in this, but also by what's called 
civil society, by private enterprise, by a whole host of actors, by 
technical people, academics and the like,” Gross said. (See related 
article and transcript.)

The U.S. government has maintained a consistent hands-off approach that 
has allowed the Internet to grow and develop without substantial 
restrictions.

Since 1998, a nonprofit organization named ICANN -- Internet Corporation 
for Assigned Names and Numbers -- has been responsible for managing and 
coordinating the Internet's domain names, according to ICANN.

ICANN’s role has been to facilitate and smooth the explosive growth of 
the Internet. Its president directs an international staff, working from 
three continents, who ensure that ICANN meets its operational commitment 
to the Internet community.

FEARS BUREAUCRATIC CONTROL WOULD STIFLE INNOVATION

Gross expressed concern over some other countries’ proposals for sharing 
or ceding private sector oversight of the Internet -- including what 
ICANN now does -- to the United Nations.

A recent European Union proposal, for example, outlined a new framework 
for international cooperation that would see the creation of a new, 
multistakeholder “forum” to develop public policy, and international 
government involvement in allocation of Internet Provider (IP) 
addressing systems.

“As we read the EU proposal, there will be a group of bureaucrats from 
countries around the world that will be able to restrict the innovation 
that the technical people in Italy, for example, currently bring to the 
Internet and their ability to be able to continue to innovate,” Gross 
said. “We would like to see people -- whether it's in Italy, Russia, 
United States, around the world -- be free to continue to innovate and 
not have to seek permission or make sure that they structure what they 
do in a way that meets some predetermined outcome set by a bunch of 
international government bureaucrats.

“What the EU seems to propose is a top-down bureaucratic structure that 
was the way of the last century and that seems to us to be 
counterproductive because it stifles innovation, it stifles the very 
thing that's made the Internet as successful as it is,” he said.

He also noted that support for the EU proposal, which was made at a 
preparatory conference (PrepCom-3) for the Tunis summit in September, 
was expressed by Cuba, Iran and China, among others. “These are not, I 
submit, the types of people who necessarily see eye to eye with us in 
terms of the importance of the growth and the participatory nature of 
the Internet,” Gross said.

PrepCom-3 failed to reach agreement on a number of contentious issues, 
and the United States is working with other governments, private 
enterprise and nongovernmental organizations to craft an agreement that 
will bridge diverse positions on how, by whom and to what degree the 
Internet should be governed or regulated.

“We see the way in which the Internet has worked so far, and we support 
its continuing evolution. What we don't want to see is an 
intergovernmental group coming in to stifle that,” Gross said.

He noted that the preparatory meeting would resume for three days on the 
eve of the WSIS summit in Tunis. “Between now and then, we are already 
and we'll continue to be very actively engaged in bilateral discussions, 
not only with governments but with other groups -- industry, civil 
society and the like. And, you know, we are very hopeful that when the 
world leaders gather in Tunis in November, that they will have a 
document to endorse that we can all be proud of,” he said.

During the live Internet chat on November 2, Gross will be available to 
answer questions about the upcoming WSIS summit in Tunis and the U.S. 
position on various issues relating to Internet governance. The chat 
will be held at 11:00 a.m. EST (1600 GMT).

To ask a question or make a comment, please register at 
iipchat at state.gov. If you already have participated in one of our 
previous discussions, there is no need to register again. Just use the 
same user name and password. We neither require nor encourage the use of 
full names. You may identify yourself by the user name of your choice.

As always, your questions and comments are welcome in advance of the 
program and at any time during it.
-- 
-----------------------------------
Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldivide.net
http://katrina05.blogspot.com
Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com
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