[governance] Senate OKs Immunity for Telecoms

[Karl Auerbach]

Dan Krimm wrote:
> Sorry for the sporadic peanut-gallery engagement here, but WRT this:
> 
> At 4:54 AM -0800 2/14/08, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
> 
>> I must admit, nor would I regard anything from moveon.org or the EFF when
>> taking about the internet as anything other than propaganda ..
> 
> I like EFF

As do I.

We should strive that in all our ventures of internet governance to 
remember that the purpose of governance is to improve the lives of people.

One way in which lives are improved is to provide a means of 
compensation when someone is harmed.

When we - you and me - have our privacy violated and the express 
promises of our service contracts violated, we are harmed.

Any internet provider that violates a law or its contracts should 
compensate the victims.  That is just and proper.

Insofar as AT&T and others have violated my privacy and violated their 
agreement with me (I am an AT&T customer) than they should compensate 
me.  That is just, proper, and in the spirit of long established law.

EFF aspires to justice.  I am proud that EFF has held to the ancient 
principle that where there is a wrong the law should seek a remedy.

It is sad that on this list a very good person has been directly defamed 
and insulted.  I have known John Gilmore for years.  He is neither 
"raving" nor a "lunatic".  He is a decent, rational, and charitable 
person who believes that people should be citizens rather than subjects. 
  He believes strongly in the individual human being and deeply resents 
arbitrary and capricious restraints on individual liberty.

In our aspirations for internet governance we would be well served by 
adopting the views of EFF and John Gilmore that people do matter, that 
legitimacy of bodies of governance ultimate comes from those people, and 
that asking questions, requiring answers, and holding to principle is to 
be admired, not condemned.

And we should always seek to construct our systems of internet 
governance on broadly accepted principles of justice and with deep 
regard for the mechanisms, many dating from the 18th century, to help 
prevent the growth of lawless and arbitrary institutions of governance.

The EFF is our friend in that endeavor.

		--karl--





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