Countries, companies debate U.N. control over Internet

AP ^ | March 28, 2004 | CHRIS HAWLEY

[sarcasm]

Typically, only heads of state and titans of industry get an audience on the 38th floor of the marble-and-glass tower housing the United Nations.

So when the president of a California nonprofit corporation with an unwieldy name -- the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers -- met Friday with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, it signaled the group's importance in a computer-driven world.

[martin_fierro]

Some countries and activists argue that ICANN is too close to the United States and want the United Nations to take a greater role in regulating the Internet.

Great idea.

[metesky]

"The United Nations would be a good platform for that, because it has legitimacy. The countries are all represented," said Izzeldin Mohamed Osman, a computer science professor from the Sudan University of Science and Technology.

Osman spoke from the beautiful modern campus of the Sudan University of Science and Technology where 89% of the students when polled thought that intern-et was something a former US president did.

[Diogenesis]

More kickbacks for \Annan's wife and Annan's son, Tojo (just like Iraq, it seems)

[angkor]

ICANN also chooses who controls the country codes -- like ".us" or ".uk" -- that define each country's piece of real estate in cyberspace.

Country codes are established by the International Standards Organization based in Switzerland, not by ICANN. It's a tautology to imply there's something wrong with ICANN assigning the code, since that's precisely what any top-level domain registrar must do.

Many folks are upset with ICANN, but turning to the U.N. to assume its functions only makes sense to the technically naive. It would be a disaster.

[cricket]

"Osman spoke from the beautiful modern campus of the Sudan University of Science and Technology where 89% of the students when polled thought that intern-et was something a former US president did."

LOL;LOL!

T H E best laugh for this one :^)

[Gorzaloon]

Because ICANN reports to the U.S. Department of Commerce, some countries are nervous that Washington could force the disruption of Internet traffic to entire countries by deleting them from central computers -- like ripping out pages of a telephone directory.

Sounds great. May I suggest .CN,.HK,.SG,.TW, and .KR for starters.

They would then have peace and quiet to ponder whether it really was a good idea to offer spammers "bulletproof hosting".

[LadyDoc]

yes, but huts in the Philippines that look just like your photo now spout TV antennas, and the kids go down the street during their lunch hour to play computer games...

It's called entrepeneurism.

You see, you get some money from everyone in your family, including your brother who works with oil wells in Saudi Arabia, and your second cousin who is a nurse in NYC, and you buy a computer, a telephone line, and a computer connection, and they you put "computer shop" in your window, and voila, you are the computer connection for your village.

In Africa, though, it means a lot more bribes, and a generator. And if you are in Islamic countries, no loans are available to you, and your school only teaches the Koran, not English and Math, so your relatives can't get decent jobs. That's why the Saudi oil fields are full of Indians, Bangladeshis and Filipinos.

[Clive]

Judging by the membership of such bodies as the UN Human Rights Commission,

And judging by the predeliction toward Isreal bashing and US bashing in international Human Rights conferences,

And judging from the respectful reception afforded to a recent speech by Zimbabwe's mugabe respecting his ideas on regulating communications,

Assumption of control by the UN will be quickly followed by massive censorship.

[DustyMoment]

Gee, let me see, here - the US developed the Internet but shouldn't have any control over an invention that the rest of the world has been allowed to use.

Yeah, sure, I buy into that idea. We also invented airplanes that lead to air travel and, clearly we lack the expertise to govern that so it is something else that the losers and slackers in the world should control.

I really look forward to the wisdom and insight that Abu al Imanidiot from the Sudan will have to offer on controlling the Internet. The only thing that the UN has to offer is anti-American policies and world socialism based on the premise that what wealthier nations have developed and earned belongs to the 3rd world who did nothing.