Internet overseeing organisation ICANN will become an autonomous body, free from any form of government control, on 1 October 2008, if plans drawn up between it and the US government go according to plan. The current agreement between ICANN and the US Department of Commerce is due to expire next week, but speculation has been mounting for months over what will happen to management of the internet’s vital domain name system.
…US government plans to urinate all over net neutrality?
Assuming it’s true of course, and the US government doesn’t suddenly realise its mistake and renege on the agreement.
Not possible? Remember the guy who opposed Bush in the Y2K primaries and was pissed off when the Bush campaign spread lies about him? “[A]ccording to voteview.com, McCain’s voting record in the 109th Congress is the third most conservative” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain#Political_views)
I’m sorry, but…
While I’m not up for a political debate (I’m a diehard progressive liberal socialist pinko almost commie queer whatever-they-wanna-call-me), I do find your last paragraph confusing. So because somebody is conservative, they would oppose net neutrality?
One of the interesting things is the article section you point to shows McCain to be one who doesn’t follow the party line. Support most of the US’ foreign policy? Yes. Support stem cell research? Yes. Support reducing Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy? Yes.
So I guess what I don’t understand is the relevance your post has to itself, nevermind the article… Bush lying about McCain, and the man’s voting record, have what to do with what? Aren’t there 99 other senators anyway?
Don’t let his comments get to you. I find that most of the “politically charged” replies to articles regarding ICANN are from people outside the United States who don’t have a good grasp of American politics nor an understanding of who developed the internet and how.
Their views are mostly based on European news outlets that are extremely critical of anything American and far more liberally slanted in their reporting than US news sources. Hard to believe actually! 😉
And before I get flamed, let me say that I was born a German citizen and I have lived all over the world. So I know what I’m talking about regarding the news media in other countries. I’m now an American citizen and proud of it.
Welcome troll, we needed more like you…
The whole question of “IF” one country should control ICANN is already answered. The answer is NO. NO single country should control ICANN. US has done a generaly good job in the past but I’m sure that with the New Order of Bush things will start to change. Ofcourse that depends on next votes (if some “terrorist” attack doesn’t happen to give Bush a “suddenly needed executive powers”).
I can understand that some people are afraid what countries like China will do, but honestly, if they go goofing around the rest of the world is simply going to isolate them (which is already done right now).
In any case, you americans are paranoid of the fact that you might lose control of something and even more afraid to “trust” someone.
On the other hand I do see a problem with the fact that it’ll become more or less 100% private, which isn’t good either.
Nothing’s perfect, but i think it’s a good move, especialy in the “imperialization period” in USA…
P.S: I almost forgot… the whole “who developed the internet” is just stupid. I’ll never diminish the role of US in it but that doesn’t mean that they can now control the whole thing. It’s like if there was just Bell Industries all over the world controling the phone lines today…
Edited 2006-09-22 14:13
Since you decided to stoop to name calling in your very first sentence, the I will stoop to your level and call you a left-wing, liberal nut job who has no idea what goes on inside America’s borders nor outside your own borders. You’ve probably never even traveled abroad and you assume that everything you see in your country’s news outlets is true. News agencies are businesses like any other. They sell a product and if they can embellish the product to make a few more sales, then that’s what they’ll do. All businesses do it.
If you are so worried about this issue, then why don’t you petition YOUR government to have is own DNS system and set up a “national intranet” that is specific to your country’s borders and needs. No one is forcing you to connect to Bush’s New Order or the Evil American Empire.
It’s all about money really. He who controls ICANN controls billions in commerce. Asking the Americans to give up their control over ICANN is about like asking the Saudis to give up control over their oil fields…..get real people!
In case you hadn’t noticed, the Internet is now bigger than America. There would be no justification for other countries butting in on America’s control of the internet if it were still a university network connecting American universities, but as I understand it rhere were already non-American universities connected to the internet before the creation of the Web.
woosh look at the brainwashed talking!
In any case, this is my last reply here, I’m not going to bother a fuel this crap.
I was only un the UK, but I have family in US. I don’t know what they did to your brain but let me tell you something, you sound worse than a commie fanboy and I know what I’m talking about this time…
“but I’m sure that with the New Order of Bush things will start to change”
That’s the biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard?! What on Earth do Bush’s policies have to do with ICANN? It is still managed by a group of people, not by the executive branch of our government.
“In any case, you americans are paranoid of the fact that you might lose control of something and even more afraid to “trust” someone.”
Believing that our allies will feel the same way we do about issues may be naive, but I don’t see how it could be misconstrued as an issue of paranoia and a fear to trust.
But you misconstrue we “Americans” with our gov’t leaders. We elect those who seem to have the best mix of attributes (of those who actually RUN for office).
If I am given a choice of 2 candidates, for example, and candidate A has 3 qualities I like, and 2 I don’t, but candidate B has only 2 qualities I like… then I am voting for candidate A.
We never elect an official that we completely agree with in every issue. It just doesn’t happen. We pick the one that we think will more closely represent us in some of the issues.
Besides, we are never really IN CONTROL, so what’s the point of being afraid of losing control?
Actually, I follow American politics very closely, have several contacts in the US, and I HAVE lived abroad (though not in the US). I also know the kinds of things that get broadcast on Al-Jazeera TV, and who developed the internet, how, and why – and it wasn’t Al Gore.
As for “liberal” news sources being “hard to believe,” at worst, they’re less hard to believe than rightwing ones.
European news outlets that are extremely critical of anything American and far more liberally slanted in their reporting than US news sources. Hard to believe actually! 😉
I really wish there were a law that required people to take at least 1 undergraduate philosophy course before being allowed to use the word “liberal.”
ISPs and telcos are against net neutrality; they tend to be big businesses; conservatives are big-business friendly; so yes, conservatives are most likely to oppose net neutrality.
There are 99 other senators, but that doesn’t make a difference to what McCain’s administration will do if he becomes President. It wasn’t entirely clear that that was what I was saying, however, so I’ll concede that point.
Edited 2006-09-22 16:12
Looking at Mccains voteing record it seems 50/50 liberal/con. The voting record stated up thread in incomplete, saying he is the 3rd most conservative republican. Here is the whole wikipedia qoute:
“McCain’s voting record in the 109th Congress is the third most conservative (as of November 2005). On the other hand, his voting record during the 107th Congress, from January 2001 through November of 2002, places him as the 6th most liberal Republican senator, according to the same data and analysis at voteview.com.”
I could see Mccain as being pro net netrality. Does anyone know if he has a position on this?
First, several big businesses support net neutrality – see Amazon, Google, and the like.
Second, while conservatives have long been known to have a strong pro-business slant, don’t ever let yourself be fooled – the Dems aren’t nearly as clean as they’d like you to be (Microsoft gave equal contributions to Gore and Bush in 2k, if I recall correctly).
The similarities between the parties is more apparrent and frightening as time goes on
Then again, in my home state of Connecticut, our republican members of the house are far more progressive on many issues than many dems throughout the country….And Lieberman is far more conservative on many issues.
Maybe we really should be at a place where party doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t when it comes to judging a politician anyway, not like it used to…
@twenex
You need help. I am serious. All that anger needs to be released. First suggestion would be a good amount of time away from PCs. Take up martial arts for example. It’s a great anger management.
Sorry, but if you’re suggesting I should take up something that’ll make me more accepting of the shenanigans (to put it mildly) of politicians and businessmen (among others), I would regard that as pacification.
Gandhi might not have blown people up, and I don’t go in for that either, but that doesn’t mean he was happy with the way the British were treating his people. Quite the contrary, in fact.
If I remember my history correctly, Ghandi started out a very angry young man. It wasn’t until he was older that he finally was able to channel his sorrow and anger into something constructive.
I think the parent was suggesting an outlet. It’s not wrong to be angry – you’d be stupid if you weren’t. I think the suggestion was merely meant to benefit you – if you’re filled with blind rage, for example, you’re not doing your beliefs/cause any good. But if you can control it, channel it, use it (feels like I’m talking about the Dark Side of the Force), it’ll benefit you far more greatly.
So in short. Be pissed. But articulate and control yourself enough to get your point across rationally and in a way people will listen too. Or you’ll just be seen as that smelly guy under the bridge stealing all the goats!
The US government may be corrupt, but ICANN is worse. With no oversight, there’s no limit to how much ICANN can screw up the DNS.
… who’s going to police ICANN?
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” –Lord Acton, 1887
… who’s going to police ICANN?
The free market. If they suck so bad, people will dump .com for .something else. It’s all much-of-a-much-ness anyway. Googlerank is more important than a good domain name.
And what if ICANN doesn’t permit new top-level domains?
ICANN doesn’t control the root server operators, so they could create new TLDs even if ICANN doesn’t like it. Or ISPs could just switch to an alternate root zone.
But in reality I don’t think the free market can reign in ICANN. It looks like the US government created and sustained a monopoly and then decided to deregulate once it was established; it can’t be a good idea.
Edited 2006-09-22 22:42
That seems unlikely and wrong. If root server operators were free to add top-level domains without any involvement by ICANN, then ICANN would have no authority and, therefore, would serve no purpose whatsoever. Sorry, not buying it.
jees, in my experience icann is corrupt and money grabbing enough, if they lose government control, they will be as evil as network solutions!
Ha ha! Whaaaat?!
See:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1761362.stm
http://www.cavebear.com/cbblog-archives/000192.html