[governance] Report Public Hearing

Tue May 5 06:52:04 EDT 2009

Always great fun to read Fox News stuff! We already knew that Reding  
was a "bureaucrat", a "Luxembourgian" (though it sounds better in  
French, however: "Luxembourgeoise"), and that she purports many  
things, but now this poor Ms. Reding is also one of these "less  
prudish European", i.e. a porn queen.

Le 5 mai 09 à 10:20, Ian Peter a écrit :

> Good to see Fox News continuing its normal balanced reporting...
>
>
> On 5/05/09 6:16 PM, "William Drake"  
> <william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch> wrote:
>
>> Also interesting is the display of diplomatic finesse that has  
>> made Reding a beloved figure in DC.
>>>>
>>>>  "I trust that President Obama will have the courage, the wisdom  
>>>> and the respect for the global nature of the internet to pave  
>>>> the way in September for a new, more accountable, more  
>>>> transparent, more democratic and more multilateral form of  
>>>> Internet Governance," said EU Commissioner Viviane Reding in her  
>>>> Internet video message this morning. "The time to act is now.  
>>>> And Europe will be ready to support President Obama in his  
>>>> efforts."
>>
>> So presumably if he doesn't follow her instructions and buy into a  
>> G12 etc, he lacks courage, wisdom, and respect for the Internet's  
>> global nature.
>>
>> The framing and carefully laid political groundwork (reminiscent  
>> of the "cooperation at the level of principles" announcement WSIS  
>> II Prepcom 3) undoubtedly will help make it easy on NTIA or anyone  
>> else in DC trying to argue for ICANN's independence and  
>> globalization...And I'm sure right wingers in the US won't take  
>> notice...oops, wait...Fox News has it covered.  More to come...
>>
>>
>> Europeans: U.S. Should Give Up Control of Internet
>>
>> http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,518808,00.html
>>
>>
>>
>> Monday, May 04, 2009
>>
>>
>>
>> STRASBOURG, France —  The United States has too much control over  
>> the Internet and needs to give it up, a European Union bureaucrat  
>> declared Monday.
>>
>>
>>
>> EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding, a  
>> Luxembourgian, called for "full privatization" of the Internet  
>> Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), demanding that  
>> it be removed from the supervision of the U.S. Department of  
>> Commerce when its operating agreement expires on Sept. 30.
>>
>>
>>
>> "In the long run, it is not defendable that the government  
>> department of only one country has oversight of an Internet  
>> function which is used by hundreds of millions of people in  
>> countries all over the world," said Reding in a statement.
>>
>>
>>
>> She purports to be calling for less, not more, government  
>> involvement in the Internet, using a free-market argument against  
>> the Commerce Department's control of ICANN.
>>
>>
>>
>> Longtime Euroskeptics may be surprised by that approach, as the  
>> European Commission normally sees fit to issue binding regulations  
>> governing all aspects of public life on all member states, right  
>> down to the sizes of apples and oranges in street markets.
>>
>>
>>
>> ICANN is a non-profit organization based in Marina del Rey,  
>> Calif., which among other tasks supervises the top-level domains  
>> of the Internet, such as ".com" and ".net," as well as country- 
>> code domains such as ".fr" and ".uk."
>>
>>
>>
>> The U.S. military and defense-research labs at universities across  
>> the country built the Internet in the 1970s, and ever since then  
>> it's essentially been controlled by the U.S. government.
>>
>>
>>
>> This has upset other countries' governments. In 2005, a U.N. body  
>> tried to persuade the U.S. to hand over control, arguing that no  
>> one nation should run such a vital means of communication.
>>
>>
>>
>> The U.S. successfully quashed that attempt, partly by pointing out  
>> that it's been a very hands-off landlord and mostly lets ICANN do  
>> whatever it wants.
>>
>>
>>
>> One exception to that trend involved ICANN's proposed ".xxx"  
>> domain for pornographic Web sites, which would have kept online  
>> porn in its own sector.
>>
>>
>>
>> Pressure from American politicians killed the idea two years ago,  
>> causing consternation among their less prudish European counterparts.
>>
>>
>>
>> Yet Reding may have undermined her own free-market argument by  
>> simultaneously proposing a new international body, a "G12 for  
>> Internet Governance" that would oversee ICANN and be made up of  
>> voting representatives from around the world.
>>
>>
>>
>> Like the 2005 plan, that would essentially be handing over  
>> Internet control not to the free market, but to the same creaky  
>> collection of international bureaucrats who control the EU and the  
>> U.N. — which might mean a lot more government involvement in day- 
>> to-day Internet operations.
>>
>>
>>
>> The European Commission plans to hold a series of public hearings  
>> on the issue beginning Wednesday in Brussels.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ____________________________________________________________
>> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>>      governance at lists.cpsr.org
>> To be removed from the list, send any message to:
>>      governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org
>>
>> For all list information and functions, see:
>>      http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>      governance at lists.cpsr.org
> To be removed from the list, send any message to:
>      governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org
>
> For all list information and functions, see:
>      http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance

____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance