Al Gore doesn't want the govt. to run the net.
He may not want to, but there will be so much clamour for legislation this way and that way, that it is inevitable that the govt gets involved.
As the Net will enmesh further with mainstream social issues, this clamour will only increase.
Untimate control over the Domain Name registration process (internationally) will give them the ability to apply sanctions where they are most effective: deregistration of second (or third) level Domains.
<rant>
This is why I keep on pleading for the recognition of some sort of Domain Name Owners' Bill of Rights, so that this process will at least not be totally arbitrary.
</rant>
The following article sheds a little better light on what is going on in Japan :(published August 1 in the
> Marin Independent Journal, not available on line, released in the Domain -Policy list)
>
> "Japan controls access to Web" by KRT News Service
>
> "It seems that a group of Japanese-based Internet providers,
> operating with the approval of the government, controls who gets to
> play--and how much they pay--to get access to the WWW in Japan.
> [snip]
> Dozens of entrepreneurs have found that they could not use their
> Internet addresses in Japan. . . unless they also used a Japanese Internet
> service provider. Japanese firms, however, are usually slower and far more
> expensive than overseas providers, foreign businessmen say.
> [snip]
> The Japan Network Information Center, or JPNIC, the
> quasi-governmental group that assigns domain names to users, is essentially
> run by Japan's Internet service providers. These firms pay about $3,500 to
> join and $2,150 annually. As members of JPNIC, these providers have the
> power to 'approve' new domain addresses--but they approve only those new
> addresses that use Japanese Internet providers, according to Naomasa
> Maruyama, JPNIC vice president.
> [snip]
> [Todd] Walzer [Israeli businessman] and [David] Shepherd [founder
> of Tangent Computing Ltd, a software distribution company] offer two
> examples of the perils Internet entrepreneurs face in Japan. After Walzer
> registered his .jp domain name, he found no Internet provider in Japan
> willing to direct his Web mail to the U.S. -based server that was hosting
> his web pages. So he finally signed a contract with a Japanese provider."
>
> ----------------
> [Note: Only companies registered for business in Japan can obtain a .jp
> domain, and a corporation can obtain only one; individuals cannot acquire
> a domain name. JPNIC says these strict rules were created to prevent
> cyberscammers.]
>
Note the weasel word "quasi governmental".
JPNIC is now part of a wider Pacific Association, APNIC, that is equally unaccountable to its stakeholders. It is unclear inhowfar APNIC can control JPNIC.
This kind of governance owes more to the MLM model than to the democracy model that we profess to prefer.
Joop Teernstra LL.M.
Democratic Association of Domain Name Owners
http://www.democracy.org.nz
____________________________________________________________________ -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join The Web Consultants Association : Register on our web site Now Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants If you lose the instructions All subscription/unsubscribing can be done directly from our website for all our lists. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
