Posted on 10/02/2009 6:51:07 PM PDT by NorwegianViking
After complaints about American dominance of the internet and growing disquiet in some parts of the world, Washington has said it will relinquish some control over the way the network is run and allow foreign governments more of a say in the future of the system. Icann – the official body that ultimately controls the development of the internet thanks to its oversight of web addresses such as .com, .net and .org – said today that it was ending its agreement with the US government. The deal, part of a contract negotiated with the US department of commerce, effectively pushes California-based Icann towards a new status as an international body with greater representation from companies and governments around the globe. Icann had previously been operating under the auspices of the American government, which had control of the net thanks to its initial role in developing the underlying technologies used for connecting computers together. But the fresh focus will give other countries a more prominent role in determining what takes place online, and even the way in which it happens – opening the door for a virtual United Nations, where many officials gather to discuss potential changes to the internet. Icann chief Rod Beckstrom, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Washington insider who took over running the organisation in July, said there had been legitimate concerns that some countries were developing alternative internets as a way of routing around American control. "It's rumoured that there are multiple experiments going on with countries forking the internet, various countries have discussed this," he said. "...He added that the changes would prove powerful when combined with upcoming plans to allow web users to use addresses with names in Chinese, Arabic or other alphabets other than Latin...
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
—————I would like to know what Washington is giving up. ——————
Answer:
Freerepublic.com
Everything.
Get with the program bub!
I’m trying.
What we are gaining is: Chinese communist, Canadian and European socialist speech restrictions. Not to mention the speech restrictions of our Muslim brothern in the world.
This is going to be TERRIBLE for freedom but right up the “Progressive’s” ally.
Would you be more specific?
What are the ramifications of this?
Paragraphs are your friend.....
jeez why dont we give away our first born
While the Internet should never be under the control of ANY loser government(s), free speech was probably LEAST threatened when it was under US control. Now, the political floodgates are OPENED!
All your innernets are belong to us.
The libs are working on that
What, exactly, is the upside of this appararently idiotic decision? Were the US taxpayers handsomely reimbursed for developing this innovation? Will America benefit in any substantial way from this change? Why was it done with virtually no fanfare or public input. If not we, the people who funded the development of the internet, then exactly who benefits and why?
Good Grief...don’t give them any ideas.
Why not? Democrat presidunces have pissed away everything else that was good and important. Panama Canal, Iran, great society, now health care and the internet.
The inventor (Algore) is going to be pi$$ed.
A far more intelligent solution is for an international conglomerate to form a true alternative to the Internet, that works exclusively by uncensored satellite transceivers. Up links and down links would be carefully controlled so that no government involvement is permitted.
Likely it would piggyback on the Internet as well, but as a means to leech, not upload. This means that the non-data window dressing of the system can be handled by the Internet, with only the restricted information being handled by the satellites.
For example, every part of the Free Republic that was not text would be transmitted on the Internet, and the Satellite would do only the text, and your computer would put the two together.
So all any snoop would see would be the blank FR home page, unless they could tap in to and decrypt the encrypted satellite down link.
As a controlled system, there would be no advertisement or spam, hacking, censorship or surveillance.
Since most of the Internet is “ordinary”, that is where users would spend most of their time. But any time they wanted to discuss sensitive things that others would interfere with, they activate the down link.
And did our fawning MSM finally cover themselves with glory just this once by reporting on this story? Methinks they knew about this and liked it, because it may offer a way to stifle the free flow of information as it has evolved these last few years.
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