The GIP as the Holy Ghost in the Virgin Birth of ICANN I urge list members, if they read only one of the three long posts I just dredged up from my archives, to read the 13 kilobytes on the formation of the GIP in October 97. If we could drag Joe Sims before congress and force him to testify as to his role, i'll betcha we would find that: 1. the ICANN bylaws reflect precisely what those behind the GIP wanted. to think that Sims and jon postell conspired alone and without outside input to coble together such authoritarian by laws defies credibility. 2. that major vetting of the trustees for the preliminary board was done by members unknown of the GIP 3. that changes to the by laws designed to keep the Europeans happy came from the GIPs EC contingent (witness the well known late november change to article 4 taht opens the door wide to the ITU). 4. that Joe Sims was the hired gun to do the bidding of the GIPsters 5. that Roger Cochetti ran liason between all the affected parties. thanks to michael sondow....for I stumbled on this the (GIP stuff) by accident while looking for the USPS piece. =============== the two key paragraphs==================== The Global Internet Project On October 28, 1997 Rick Wesson posted a Rueters news story to the IETF list: Internet Companies Welcome Idea of Global Charter BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A group of U.S., European and Japanese companies involved in the Internet informally welcomed a European Union proposal to draw up a charter to govern the global computer network. The companies, who have united as the Global Internet Project (GIP), said they wanted to be involved in the process, Peter F. Harter, global public policy counsel for Netscape Communications, told Reuters. "(They) will individually provide input as to how industry may play the best role," he said following a meeting in Brussels. EU Telecommunications Commissioner Martin Bangemann has proposed drawing up an international charter to deal with questions such as technical standards, illegal content, licenses, encryption and data privacy on the Internet and other electronic networks. *************************************************************************** The COOK Report on Internet 431 Greenway Ave, Ewing, NJ 08618 USA (609) 882-2572 (phone & fax) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cookreport.com NOTE: Contempt in which ICANN PRES. MIKE ROBERTS holds rest of Internet: "Some of those people think the management [ICANN] should check with the public [the Communities of the Internet] every time they make a decision, which is crazy," Roberts said. "That's flat-out crazy." WIRED NEWS 2/4/99 ***************************************************************************
