[governance] Is This An Issue for Internet Governance/Internet Human Rights?

[Kerry Brown]

> >If you don't classify this as "an internet governance issue", what kind
> >of governance issue is it then?
> 
> If we aren't careful, then everything we do becomes an Internet Governance
> issue (if some aspect of the activity takes place on the Internet).
> 

This is the key point in this discussion for me. The Internet is a communications medium. The reason for it's rapid adoption and success so far is it allows innovation on an unprecedented scale and has a very wide reach. One of the major contributing factors for this success is a relative lack of regulation on what you can do on the Internet. For me Internet Governance is about guidelines for how the Internet should work not about what you can do on the Internet. There is obviously a lot of overlap and disagreement about where to draw the line between how it works and what people can do on the Internet. I'd rather err on the side of less Internet Governance and allow governments to create laws and regulations on what is allowed to be done on the Internet in their jurisdiction. This is no different from other communication media like telephone, radio, television, newspapers, etc. Creating regulations restricting how people act on the Internet via Internet Governance will stifle innovation. It will also allow repressive governments to use these Internet Governance regulations in unforeseen ways that will allow them more control over the Internet.

I agree 100% that the issues brought up in the original blog need to be addressed. These are legal issues though, not Internet Governance issues. One party contracted for a service and thinks the other party didn't supply the contracted service. The issues should certainly be discussed in Internet Governance forums and recommendations made as to what we think the regulations should be. The actual regulation should be left to the existing legal system in each country. This will allow innovation to continue and it will stop aggressive governments from expanding control of the Internet beyond their jurisdiction.

This will create problems when cross jurisdictional issues like this arise but we already have systems in place for dealing with this. International business has been occurring for quite a while now. It predates the Internet :)

Kerry Brown

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