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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. 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="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A 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 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>
<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">
<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
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>
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<DIV> </DIV>
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style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)">-- </SPAN><BR
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="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255); FONT-SIZE: 9pt"></P>
<P style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt">WCRD 2013 – Consumer Justice Now! | Consumer
Protection Map: <A
href="https://wcrd2013.crowdmap.com/main">https://wcrd2013.crowdmap.com/main</A>
| #wcrd2013</P>
<P style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255); FONT-SIZE: 9pt">@Consumers_Int |
<A
href="http://www.consumersinternational.org/">www.consumersinternational.org</A>
| <A
href="http://www.facebook.com/consumersinternational">www.facebook.com/consumersinternational</A></P>
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target=_blank>email confidentiality notice</A>. Don't print this email unless
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