From: Mark Measday <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>In respect of Ms Hauben's points below, isn't there a
>Governmental Advisory Committee amongst the committees proposed to
>ICANN? Has this been cancelled?
But to only have it as an advisory committee, even if it did ever
get constituted and met, is to play games with the issue of
governments obligations with respect of forming or being
part of an International organization.
The U.S. government has internally created all sorts of ways of
trying to give power to powerful commercial entities, and yet
despite the legal maneuvers they do the government is still
responsible for the functions that government is responsible for.
However, if one tries to figure out who has liablity, one gets into
this tangle that just makes it hard to hold the proper party, i.e.
the U.S. government, responsible.
>Many international organizations are constituted by treaty, or under
>international treaties and are maintained at the expense by those (theore=
>tically representative) governments who sign the treaties. So it
>would seem logical that if ICANN has the burdensome international
>task of sorting out international problems on behalf of governments
>or quasi-governmental bodies, the governments should contribute or
>think about contributing towards ICANN's upkeep.
Yes international organizations are created by agreements of nations
(i.e. international ) and includes government official participation.
What the U.S. government is doing is *not* creating any "international"
organization, but rather an organization that hides its own role
and its own liabilities.
In the U.S. this happens at times when government entities try to
bring private entities into the process of carrying out what are
government functions, and in the process the private entities are
only involved in what the government is doing, rather than the
government ceasing to have its obligations.
But it becomes a legal tangle for anyone trying to deal with the
ways that others rights are infringed in this kind of situation.
If there are those who want an international organization, then
appropriate measures have to be taken to form such, rather
than allow the U.S. government to maneuver in a way that trieds
to avoid responsibility for its actions, but allows it to hold
the power behind the scenes.
ICANN is *not* in any way an International but something created
by the U.S. government tr enpower those obligations that the U.S.
government currently holds.
But the U.S. government, despite its disclaimers will maintain both
control and ultimately liability for whatever mess it is planning.
However this is a harmful way to be dealing with the essential functions
of the Internet which so many people around the world are dependent
upon.
>they should do it themselves. Only the USG government, for
>obvious historical reasons, seems to have to have thought about or
>done this.
The U.S. government has failed to have given the proper study or
thought to what it is doing.
It is so busy trying to gain a commercial advantage for a few
big corporations that it doesn't support the kind of research and
study needed to figure out what is a proper way to carry out
the changes needed to scale the Internet.
This is a serious question that needed to be studied and clarified,
and with an effort made to proceed a bit at a time to see if the
sense of how to solve the problem was appropriate. This is a process
for research and development *not* for a grand experiment based on
political power plays.
>Blaming the US government for acting in the short-term commercial
>interest of its citizens is a little contrarian.
To the contrary, the short-term commercial interest is *not* anything
that benefits the citizens of the U.S. To the contrary it is harmful to
us. It only benefits a few big corporate entities, and not only harms
the citizens in the U.S. but also people around the world.
Many people in the U.S .and around the world depend on the Internet
for vital communication that makes their lives possible. The U.S.
government and a few commercial folks have no concern for protecting
or respecting the Internet (at least the section of the U.S. government
carrying out this plan.)
>If, however, the US government was aiming at creating an
>institution which aided free commerce of ideas, products and
>services, allowing citizens of many countries to communicate,
>converse and exchange without petty and dictatorial regulation
>by local bureaucracies, then that is of course highly political.
>Many worldwide would wish for this dangerously libertarian myth
>to be suppressed immediately.
The U.S. government is *not* aiming at such. If they were they wouldn't
be playing the games they are with the Internet. They would find a
way to protect the essential functions of the Internet *not* expose
them to political power plays.
The U.S. government has been holding IANA and the people who
work of it hostage, rather than protecting them. They have kept
them from having the appropriate contract to do their work, and instead
subjected them to being taken over by ICANN. They are meddlng
in a similar with other essential Internet functions.
The myth you put forward above is only a way of covering the U.S.
government manipulations to benefit a small set of U.S. corporate
interests.
But the Internet and the communication it makes possible is at
stake and thus those who care for it need to recognize that mythology
or fairy tales do not substitute for responsiblity and the care
that the Internet requires.
>MM
> > >Esther Dyson a =E9crit:
> > >>
> > >> We have an international board, we will have an
> > >> international membership,
> > >> and we are an international organization.
>
Ronda
Netizens: On the History and Impact
of Usenet and the Internet
http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/
in print edition ISBN 0-8186-7706-6
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