In PCWorld, Bruce Sterling asks if the Net is doomed by the eventual conflict between criminal elements and over-zealous bureacrats.
Here are more examples:
FULL SPECTRUM CULTURE
By the grace of God, seeing life in color since 2003.
Enemies Foreign and Domestic, Part II.
It is truly amazing how much the freedom of the internet is being assaulted lately and from all sides. Here’s one example…
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[...] tion” of the free exchange of ideas. Enemies foreign and domestic, part I. Enemies foreign and domestic, part II. Enemies foreign and domestic, part III. Enemies foreign and domestic, pa [...]
[...] will be back. Other posts in this series: Enemies foreign and domestic, part I. Enemies foreign and domestic, part II. Enemies foreign and domestic, part IV. Enemies foreign and domestic, pa [...]
[...] ed “Enemies Foreign and Domestic.” Here are the other installments: Enemies foreign and domestic, part II. Enemies foreign and domestic, part III. Enemies foreign and domestic, pa [...]
[...] Nor is there a rational basis for the anti-U.S. resentment driving the proposal. The history of the U.S. government’s Internet involvement has been one of relinquishing control. Rooted in a Defense Department project of the 1960s, the Internet was transferred to civilian hands and then opened to commerce by the National Science Foundation in 1995. Three years later, the non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers assumed governance responsibility under Department of Commerce oversight. Icann, with its international work force and active Governmental Advisory Committee, is scheduled to be fully privatized next year. Privatization, not politicization, is the right Internet governance regime. We do not stand alone in our pursuit of that goal. The majority of European telecommunications companies have already dissented from the EU’s Geneva announcement, with one executive pronouncing it “a U-turn by the European Union that was as unexpected as it was disturbing.” In addition to resentment of U.S. technological leadership, proponents of politicization are driven by fear — of access to full and accurate information, and of the opportunity for legitimate political discourse and organization, provided by the Internet. Nations like China, which are behind the U.N. plan to take control, censor their citizens’ Web sites, and monitor emails and chat rooms to stifle legitimate political dissent. U.N. control would shield this kind of activity from scrutiny and criticism. The U.S. must do more to advance the values of an open Internet in our broader trade and diplomatic conversations. We cannot expect U.S. high-tech companies seeking business opportunities in growing markets to defy official policy; yet we cannot stand idly by as some governments seek to make the Internet an instrument of censorship and political suppression. To those nations that seek to wall off their populations from information and dialogue we must say, as Ronald Reagan said in Berlin, “Tear down this wall.” Allowing Internet governance to be politicized under U.N. auspices would raise a variety of dangers. First, it is wantonly irresponsible to tolerate any expansion of the U.N.’s portfolio before that abysmally managed and sometimes-corrupt institution undertakes sweeping, overdue reform. It would be equal folly to let Icann be displaced by the U.N.’s International Telecommunication Union, a regulatory redoubt for those state telephone monopolies most threatened by the voice over Internet protocol revolution. Also, as we expand the global digital economy, the stability and reliability of the Internet becomes a matter of security. Technical minutiae have profound implications for competition and trade, democratization, free expression and access to information, privacy and intellectual-property protection. One might expect such attacks on free expression by those who wish to subject their own populaces to government propoganda, but it is truly disappointing when representatives of our own government wish to do the same. Read on… Enemies foreign and domestic, part I. Enemies foreign and domestic, part II. Enemies foreign and domestic, part III. Enemies foreign and domestic, part V. Enemies foreign and domestic, part VI. [...]
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