Lawmakers urge U.S. to keep control of Web

[namewaiter]

interesting article...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/10/20/congress.internet.reut/index.html

 

[LazyD]

Interesting,I think the U.S should keep control over it,they basically created the internet.

 

[Jonathan]

Personally I want the US to keep control of it.

Why should a country like China who actively censors what Chinese people can see and actively seeks out and punishes dissenters get to be involved in control of the internet?

 

[dotDan]

I agree that the US should keep control. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

However, politics should stay out of it.. Bush doesn't want .xxx domains, but should he really have the power to influence that sort of decision?

 

[JMJ]

Theres been a big discussion on the topic for a couple of weeks going on over at WHT. Many people trying to turn it into a "political war" and making comments about this is another example of the US bulying others around.. waaawaa

"Is it going to become a vehicle for global taxation of domain names? Are you going to allow folks who have demonstrated a pattern of suppression of content, are they going to be put in charge of running this thing?"

I turely believe this is exactly what will happen if the UN does assumes control.

If the US says, "Fugggit, go create your own." we won't be losing anything. All of those countries will still make their networks compatible with ours. They have too, the majority of sites are housed in US based datacenters.

There will be no WWW in the months to come if this keeps up. You will need a plugin to enter each countries network. Any system other than the current spells complete disaster. I do agree Bush needs to keep his politics and beliefs out of the decision on .xxx though.

 

[seeker]

the WWW was created in Switzerland not in the US.
However, once has to admit that the US had a *gigantic* rile in the creation of the net (not the world wide web, created in CERN)
all that said, it is not acceptable IMHO for any 1 country to control the internet.
it should immediately go to the UN.
Just as easy as it is for the US to control the net, it is easy for the rest of world to create its own system under then UN, effectively rerouting the entire world (outside the US) in another system.
NO signle nation should control the net.
if anything, remember, the world wide web (which you must admit is what we are using, no the internet per se) was created in a lab in Switzerland.

 

[furca]

I say let US keep it. It's doing fine, and no changes should be made to the it.

 

[JMJ]

the WWW was created in Switzerland not in the US.
However, once has to admit that the US had a *gigantic* rile in the creation of the net (not the world wide web, created in CERN)
all that said, it is not acceptable IMHO for any 1 country to control the internet.
it should immediately go to the UN.
Just as easy as it is for the US to control the net, it is easy for the rest of world to create its own system under then UN, effectively rerouting the entire world (outside the US) in another system.
NO signle nation should control the net.
if anything, remember, the world wide web (which you must admit is what we are using, no the internet per se) was created in a lab in Switzerland.

It's not a matter of "who" controls it in my mind. It's a matter of stability. The UN is in no means a stable organization and I use the term organization very lightly. It's turned into a forum for political and religious battles. It's corrupted and full of scandals. The cost of doing business online WILL increase if it's handed over to the UN. There will be alot of hands in the cookie jar. In particular YOUR business will see the greatest effects since it directly pertains to the DNS system and domain names. Do you want your livelyhood in the middle of all that?

And if you think GWB blocking .xxx was bad(he should keep his beliefs out of it aswell) imagine what china or any oppressive country will have to say about what you do on the net if they have that option.

 

[fatter]

just out of curiosity does anyone have stats on dollars spent on the world wide web, by country, bottom line the money spent is what keeps internet in business. when i say money spent all expenditures from domain reg's, to google add dollars, to products purchased

 

[Anthony Ng]

It's funny that they would or could stick to that for any longer. Strategically, they have let a more important "commodity" (710) go.

 

[JMJ]

"One reason why businesses are alarmed is the lengthy list of suggestions that have been advanced by nations participating in the UN process. Those include new mandates for "consumer protection", the power to tax domain names to pay for "universal access", and folding the ICANN into a UN agency. The UN has previously suggested creating an international tax bureaucracy and once floated the idea of taxing email, saying in a report that a 1 cent tax on 100 messages would be "negligible."

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39232718,00.htm

4 red flags in just one paragraph.
new mandates for "consumer protection" (or do they mean consumer restrictions?)
"tax domain names"
suggested creating an international tax bureaucracy
1 cent tax on 100 messages would be "negligible."

And these are just ideas of ways to make our internet businesses misserable. While creating a financial windfall for those on the UN payroll.

 

[Jeffreyw]

Im not American, but i'd like the US to control the internet. No to the corrupt UN please.

 

[actnow]

The U.N. does not have a strong success rate without the U.S. physical and financial support.

It is interesting to see that Brazil and Iran are pushing this move. However,
they contribute less than 1% financially to the U.N.

And, we don't want to begin discussing the U.N.'s opinion about bribery to get
things done. (case in point, oil for food.)


U.N. Budget
Assessment %
US 440 24%
Japan 346 19%
Germany 154 8%
UK 109 6%
France 107 6%
Italy 87 5%
Canada 50 3%
Spain 45 2%
China 37 2%
Mexico 34 2%
Rep Korea 32 2%
Netherlands 30 2%
Australia 28 2%
Brazil 27 1%
Switzerland 21 1%
others (176) 281 15%
Total 1,828* 100%

(* USD, million)

I assume the U.N. wants to get control of the net so they can tax it. And,
get away from the "direct" financial support by the U.S.

 

[01wojtowicz]

Interesting,I think the U.S should keep control over it,they basically created the internet.

__________________

actually (sir) Tim berners lee created it!

 

[jdk]

__________________

actually (sir) Tim berners lee created it!

I thought Al Gore did