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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On Saturday 13 April 2013 09:05 AM, Ian
Peter wrote:<br>
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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>
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<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 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"
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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>
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<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>
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<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:
rgb(255,255,255); FONT-SIZE:
9pt">@Consumers_Int | <a
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href="http://www.consumersinternational.org/">www.consumersinternational.org</a>
| <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.facebook.com/consumersinternational">www.facebook.com/consumersinternational</a></p>
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