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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On Saturday 13 April 2013 09:05 AM,
Ian Peter wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:EE796AE9A5FF43279790844911092B2F@Toshiba"
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<div>yes, the concept of no government involvement is
nonsense. The Public Knowledge response (or draft
response, it may have changed) included the following.
Not that I entirely agree with it, but it makes some
relevant points about the language.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>“ we fear that the broad language of the proposed
bill may</div>
<div>intrude on areas of consumer protection, competition
policy, law enforcement and</div>
<div>cybersecurity long considered appropriate for
national policy formulated by governments</div>
<div>with input from civil society, business and the
technical community.</div>
</div>
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</blockquote>
<br>
The 'Public Knowledge' statement is also very clear on
respective roles of different groups or stakeholders vis a vis
the public policy role of governments. This is the single most
contentious issue in global IG today..... A good rejoinder to
all those 'all stakeholders are equal in public policy making
processes' kind of dangerous anti-democracy statements, that
this elist/group (meaning Internet Gov Caucus where the message
was first posted) also seem to be rife with. 'Public Knowledge'
takes a clear and strong position against such a formulation. IT
for Change has since long warned that playing with democratic
principles at the global level can have extremely dangerous
consequences for national and local level democracy practices
and principles. <br>
<br>
what are basic democratic principles for local and national
levels remain unchanged for global levels. We all know that
facts as well possibilities at each level are different, and
these have to be worked with, however, without breaching larger
democratic principles (which are repeated sought to be breached
in the name of MSism).... UN based multilateral systems are far
from perfect (but so are are our national systems in different
ways). But then the processes at multilateral levels are also
different - for instance need for consensus for most processes,
and the fact that almost always anything agreed to
internationally becomes effective only when ratified, and that
there are almost zero coercive implementation mechanisms in the
hands of multilateral systems (expect for some of the kind which
US routinely usurps, but that is a different matter). Still, the
democratic practices at global levels should be further improved
- with all kinds of new participative, transparency,
accountability etc methods..... Which however is very different
from using the pretext of 'democracy deficit' to
institutionalise practices and institutions that are 'in
principle' anit-democratic, like seeking that a corporation
should have a similar voting power as a government in
international policy making settings.<br>
<br>
parminder <br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:EE796AE9A5FF43279790844911092B2F@Toshiba"
type="cite">
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<div> For example, the</div>
<div>United States has by law protected the privacy of
children online through Child Online</div>
<div>Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) for nearly 15 years.
Although we opposed the ITU</div>
<div>resolution to require countries to limit spam, the
United States protects its citizens from</div>
<div>spam through the CAN-SPAM Act. The Federal Trade
Commission (FTC), the Federal</div>
<div>Communications Commission (FCC), the Department of
Justice and numerous other</div>
<div>federal and state agencies have long played a
critical role in protecting consumers and</div>
<div>promoting competition and their existing statutes.</div>
<div>We fear that if this bill becomes law, rather than
being understood as simply a resolution</div>
<div>directed specifically against the efforts to expand
the jurisdiction of the ITU, these</div>
<div>important and long-standing government policies will
be undermined. Our opposition to</div>
<div>ceding authority to the ITU to decide how to balance
consumer protection and free</div>
<div>expression is not because we see no role for
government in protecting consumers or</div>
<div>promoting competition. Rather, we believe those
matters are best decided here at home,</div>
<div>by a Congress accountable to the people and enforced
by a government constrained by</div>
<div>the Constitution. Similarly, many who oppose
addressing cybersecurity or law</div>
<div>enforcement issues at the ITU regard it as entirely
appropriate for Congress or other</div>
<div>federal agencies to address these concerns, subject
to the Constitutional limitations of due</div>
<div>process and free expression.”</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Certainly a number of US groups have opposed the
language for this and similar reasons.</div>
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<div style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<div style="font-color: black"><b>From:</b> <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="jeremy@ciroap.org"
href="mailto:jeremy@ciroap.org">Jeremy Malcolm</a>
</div>
<div><b>Sent:</b> Saturday, April 13, 2013 12:56 PM</div>
<div><b>To:</b> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
title="governance@lists.igcaucus.org"
href="mailto:governance@lists.igcaucus.org">governance@lists.igcaucus.org</a>
</div>
<div><b>Subject:</b> [governance] US House Bill to
Affirm the Policy of the United States Regarding
Internet Governance</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
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<div>It doesn't seem to have been mentioned here yet (or
maybe only in passing) that there is a bill on
Internet governance being debated in the Energy &
Commerce Committee of the US House of Representatives
at the moment. There will doubtless be stampede of
uncritical support for it from politicians of all
sides (there is no hidden intellectual property
"gotcha"), but unfortunately its premises are
fundamentally flawed.</div>
<div> </div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://energycommerce.house.gov/markup/markup-bill-affirm-policy-united-states-regarding-internet-governance">http://energycommerce.house.gov/markup/markup-bill-affirm-policy-united-states-regarding-internet-governance</a></div>
<div> </div>
<div>It only has two sections: one on "Findings" and one
on "Policy regarding Internet governance", which flows
from the findings. The latter simply states:</div>
<div> </div>
<div>"It is the policy of the United States to promote a
global Internet free from government control and to
preserve and advance the successful multistakeholder
model that governs the Internet."</div>
<div> </div>
<div>So this is obviously nonsense; it is not US policy
to promote a global Internet free from government
control, only free from the control of other
governments besides itself. And note that US policy
is only to "preserve and advance" not to "enhance" the
multistakeholder model, which continues the fiction
that the multistakeholder institutions that we have
now are adequate both in their inclusiveness and in
the breadth of Internet governance topics that they
cover.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Of course, you can argue for more beneficial
interpretations by defining "control" and
"multistakeholder model" expansively, but even so this
bill is just going to entrench the standoff between
the US and other countries, which is not going to be
helpful in reaching compromise on the evolution of
Internet governance arrangements this year...</div>
<div>
<div> </div>
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style="BACKGROUND-COLOR:
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style="BACKGROUND-COLOR:
rgb(255,255,255)">
<p
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR:
rgb(255,255,255);
FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><b>Dr
Jeremy Malcolm<br>
Senior Policy Officer<br>
Consumers
International | the
global campaigning
voice for consumers</b><br>
Office for Asia-Pacific
and the Middle East<br>
Lot 5-1 Wisma WIM, 7
Jalan Abang Haji Openg,
TTDI, 60000 Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia<br>
Tel: +60 3 7726 1599</p>
<p style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt">WCRD
2013 – Consumer Justice
Now! | Consumer
Protection Map: <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://wcrd2013.crowdmap.com/main">https://wcrd2013.crowdmap.com/main</a>
| #wcrd2013</p>
<p
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR:
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| <a
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| <a
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