<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Re: [governance] IANA contract to be opened for competitive bidding on November 4</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FONT FACE="Geneva, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>Hi Ronald,<BR>
<BR>
>†he US didn't arrogate such a right to itself. It invented the Internet and gave it to the international > community. <BR>
<BR>
Well hardly, although I realise many people believe this to be true.<BR>
<BR>
The Internet was invented simultaneously in several countries as a cooperative effort – for more on simultaneous invention and its commonality, particularly in technical areas, it’s worth reading <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1856610">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1856610</a> . The sole invention of the Internet in the Arpanet computer time sharing experiments sponsored by the US Government is a convenient myth – Louis Pouzin’s work in France, Donald Davies’ work in UK, the private enterprise work conducted by John Schoch and others at Parc Xerox Labs, all of these have equally credible claims to the origins of the Internet. There are a few other more indirect claims as well which various historians are now beginning to write up. I have an out of date paper on this at <a href="http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/origins.html">http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/origins.html</a> which I hope to revise one day as there are many omissions there.<BR>
<BR>
The single point of origin myth is propagated by those who don’t know better or who have something to gain by not having the full story known. The US Government does not own the Internet, has no intellectual property rights to it, did not develop it unilaterally, and really has no right to determine its future unilaterally.<BR>
<BR>
That being said – yes I agree with you, their past involvement has been benign and actually useful in the development of the Internet. But the time has now come for ICANN to be able to perform the IANA functions without a role for the US Government.<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><BR>
Ian Peter<BR>
<BR>
<HR ALIGN=CENTER SIZE="3" WIDTH="95%"><B>From: </B><<a href="KovenRonald@aol.com">KovenRonald@aol.com</a>><BR>
<B>Reply-To: </B><<a href="governance@lists.cpsr.org">governance@lists.cpsr.org</a>>, <<a href="KovenRonald@aol.com">KovenRonald@aol.com</a>><BR>
<B>Date: </B>Mon, 24 Oct 2011 03:48:53 -0400 (EDT)<BR>
<B>To: </B><<a href="pouzin@well.com">pouzin@well.com</a>>, <<a href="governance@lists.cpsr.org">governance@lists.cpsr.org</a>><BR>
<B>Cc: </B><<a href="powerginny@gmail.com">powerginny@gmail.com</a>><BR>
<B>Subject: </B>Re: [governance] IANA contract to be opened for competitive bidding on November 4<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT FACE="Geneva, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><BR>
In a message dated 10/23/11 6:33:12 PM, <a href="pouzin@well.com">pouzin@well.com</a> writes:<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
What international agreement allows the USG to make unilateral decisions on the management of a common good ?<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
†he US didn't arrogate such a right to itself. It invented the Internet and gave it to the international community. <BR>
<BR>
Most of the alternatives proposed to the present system involve giving control to intergovernmental bodies in which authoritarian governments have heavy influence. The present system is admittedly unsatisfactory from a theoretical standpoint, but the US has in practice refrained from exercising control, with only a couple relatively minor exceptions. It seems unlikely that China or Russia, or even France, amongst the UN Security Council permanent members, would have exercised that much self-restraint.<BR>
<BR>
Pending invention of a system that is both theoretically equitable and free in practice, the present setup seems to be a matter of leaving well enough alone.<BR>
<BR>
Rony Koven, World Press Freedom Committee<BR>
</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial"><HR ALIGN=CENTER SIZE="3" WIDTH="95%"></FONT></SPAN><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Consolas, Courier New, Courier"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>____________________________________________________________<BR>
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:<BR>
<a href="governance@lists.cpsr.org">governance@lists.cpsr.org</a><BR>
To be removed from the list, visit:<BR>
<a href="http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing">http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing</a><BR>
<BR>
For all other list information and functions, see:<BR>
<a href="http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance">http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance</a><BR>
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:<BR>
<a href="http://www.igcaucus.org/">http://www.igcaucus.org/</a><BR>
<BR>
Translate this email: <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate_t">http://translate.google.com/translate_t</a><BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT>
</BODY>
</HTML>