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EU, U.S. set for Internet showdown
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| josh4 |
| quote: | EU, U.S. set for Internet showdown
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The European Union insisted Friday that governments and the private sector must share the responsibility of policing the Internet.
The United States wants to remain the Internet's ultimate authority, rejecting calls in a United Nations meeting in Geneva for a U.N. body to take over.
EU spokesman Martin Selmayr rejected American claims that the EU had changed direction.
"We are looking for a new cooperation model, a model that allows Internet governance and the laying down of public policy principles in coordination by all countries which are interested in the governance of the Internet because the Internet is a global resource," he said.
"The EU ... is very firm on this position."
The Geneva talks were the last preparatory meeting before November's World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia.
Negotiators said there was a growing sense that a compromise had to be reached and that no single country ought to be the ultimate authority over such a vital part of the global economy.
A top U.S. official said the U.S. was "deeply disappointed" with an EU proposal made Wednesday, which appeared to support wresting control of domain names from the U.S.-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, and placing it with an intergovernmental group, possibly under the United Nations.
"We will not agree to the U.N. taking over the management of the Internet," said Ambassador David Gross, the U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy at the State Department. "Some countries want that. We think that's unacceptable."
But Selmayr insisted the EU and U.S. were not that far apart, although tensions have scuppered any chance of agreement in Geneva this week.
"That doesn't mean they're won't be a result in the end," he said. "We are very close with the United States on a number of important principles. It is not for governments to control the Internet. We need more private sector involvement and the current working methods of ICANN are very efficient."
The stalemate over who should serve as the principal traffic police for Internet routing and addressing may derail the November summit, which aims to ensure a fair sharing of the Internet for the benefit of the whole world.
Internet governance historically has been the role of the U.S., which created the original system and funded much of its early development.
While this satisfies some, developing countries are upset that Western countries that got onto the Internet first used up most available addresses required for computers to connect, leaving poor nations to share a limited supply.
ICANN now controls the Internet's master directories, which tell Web browsers and e-mail programs how to direct traffic.
Net surfers worldwide use them daily but policy decisions could, at a stroke, make all Web sites ending in a specific suffix essentially unreachable.
Though the computers themselves -- 13 in all, known as "root" servers -- are in private hands, they contain government-approved lists of the 260 or so Internet suffixes, such as ".com."
In 1998, the U.S. Commerce Department selected ICANN, a private organization with international board members, to decide what goes on those lists. Commerce kept veto power, but indicated it would let go once ICANN met a number of conditions.
But earlier this year, the United States indicated Commerce would keep that control, regardless of whether and when those conditions were met.
A U.N. panel has outlined four possible options for the future of Internet governance, ranging from keeping the current system intact to revamping it under new international agencies formed under the auspices of the U.N.
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/in...t.ap/index.html |
I think the fact that the Internet is such a vital part of the global economy is a perfect reason NOT to let the U.N. have anything to do with it. |
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| Yoepus |
| if it an't broke don't fix it. |
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| Lepanto |
| quote: | Originally posted by josh4
I think the fact that the Internet is such a vital part of the global economy is a perfect reason NOT to let the U.N. have anything to do with it. |
+23821873 |
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| St_Andrew |
Yeah keep it as it is, when it comes to free speech there is no country on earth with respect for it like the US. Last thing I want to see is censoring of the internet (although we are starting to see some over here, for example for child porn, I'm affraid that's only a start though). At least that's the feeling I have that would happen if European countries got a vote in governing the Internet.
So yeah, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Could only be worse imo.
And those countries whining about lack of free IP addresses (at least that's what I think they meant in the article?). Did they ever hear about IPv6?! |
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| HardTranceProd |
| quote: | Originally posted by St_Andrew
Last thing I want to see is censoring of the internet
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Dude, that is more likely to happen in the US!!
Don't you understand that?
Already there are many American sites that have to be hosted in Europe for legal reasons (they'd be prosecuted here in the US). |
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| metalgearsolid |
| ^^^what do you mean by that casino and gambling businesses? Ay what a shame they could give the state and fed a lot of taxes if they only could be in the US. Anyways I believe the EU would be a lot more effective running the internet so ppl do not get screwed and the EU would also make sure that less viruses are sent and less computers would be hacked into. But you know that takes a lot of fun out of the internet. Which is something the EU does not understand. |
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| BadBadNeil |
| And no internet taxes!!!! |
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| Sunsnail |
| I don't care as long as there is absolutely no censorship |
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| HardTranceProd |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sunsnail
I don't care as long as there is absolutely no censorship |
Did you know that the FBI started cracking down on REGULAR porn for adults? |
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| trancaholic |
| quote: | Originally posted by St_Andrew
And those countries whining about lack of free IP addresses (at least that's what I think they meant in the article?). Did they ever hear about IPv6?! |
I think that they are whining about all the good *.com, *.net, and *.org URLs being taken. At least the rest of the article seems to be about URLs and the root DNS servers being in the US. |
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| St_Andrew |
| quote: | Originally posted by trancaholic
I think that they are whining about all the good *.com, *.net, and *.org URLs being taken. At least the rest of the article seems to be about URLs and the root DNS servers being in the US. |
So what are they arguing for exactly then, they want to put all the *.com, *.net and *.orgs to be up for sale again? :conf: |
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| DrUg_Tit0 |
| quote: | Originally posted by St_Andrew
Yeah keep it as it is, when it comes to free speech there is no country on earth with respect for it like the US. Last thing I want to see is censoring of the internet (although we are starting to see some over here, for example for child porn, I'm affraid that's only a start though). At least that's the feeling I have that would happen if European countries got a vote in governing the Internet. |
Yeah, they may even ban animal porn too! |
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