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

[parminder]

This case is very much on the lines of the case of Taipei City 
government imposing a fine on google (which spawned an important 
discussion).

Do Milton and others who seemed to have great reservation about 
appropriateness of Taipie city government's regulatory competence in 
that case still think, after reading about the case of unilateral 
withdrawal of google service, still think that users of these services 
should have no legal recourse with accountable public governance entity?

If local or national governments should *not* be the entity that people 
should be able to turn to, and these governments should *not* have the 
regulatory competence, who should?

I cannot see how can we have any coherent IG related position and any 
meaningful IG related discussion without clearly answering these 
questions, or at least strongly engaging with them. these questions are 
what really matter.

It is even more inappropriate for those not to engage with these 
questions who live in countries where google is headquartered and they 
thus have legal recourse against such actions (even if much more 
circuitous and difficult than it should be), or those who live in places 
where google's economic interests are so deep that it readily responds 
to ad hoc strong signs from the governments. Is not a rule of law based 
on democratic principles the most appropriate response to these  
problems. To me, this is the most basic internet governance issue today. 
We need to know where we stand vis a vis this all-important question.

Parminder


On Thursday 21 July 2011 08:01 PM, michael gurstein wrote:
> Ginger,
> I don't know any more but below is what I wrote to a different list 
> where this is being discussed and where the suggestion was made that 
> Google might allow a 3rd party intermediary to offer "ombusdman" 
> services as a recourse...
> At some point quantity becomes quality. The fact that Google is 
> dominant (almost a monopoly) in certain crucial areas, that it is 
> offering an increasingly seamless integration of crucial services 
> which is very much a monopoly (no one else can offer that degree of 
> transparent integration). These in itself, I think, put Google in a 
> very special position in the cybersphere. It also presents it with 
> very special responsibilities and I would argue (and I think many, 
> including legislators might, once confronted with a situation such as 
> this one, agree) with very significant social/public obligations.
> Identity "theft" is of course a serious crime, but what about a 
> corporation "losing/destroying" what is in effect someone's identity 
> -- by accident, by incompetence, by individual or corporate 
> malpractice, or even by design but without recourse or appeal.
> This case seems to be someone in the US which makes it rather less 
> complicated than if they were European for example, in which case it 
> might be something that the European Parliament or the Commission 
> might be very interested in taking a look at, with all the 
> extra-territorial issues involved including differences in 
> philosophical and practicla approaches to data and identitymanagement, 
> privacy etc.etc.
> I don't think that this is the kind of thing that in the medium or 
> longer term where Google will be able to "outsource" its responsibilty.
> M
>
>     -----Original Message-----
>     *From:* Ginger Paque [mailto:gpaque at gmail.com]
>     *Sent:* Thursday, July 21, 2011 7:02 AM
>     *To:* governance at lists.cpsr.org; michael gurstein
>     *Subject:* Re: [governance] Is This An Issue for Internet
>     Governance/Internet Human Rights?
>
>     I would like to hear more about this case, if someone can find
>     specifics, or does any follow up on it.
>     Thanks, Michael, for the link.
>
>     Ginger
>     Ginger (Virginia) Paque
>     Diplo Foundation
>     www.diplomacy.edu/ig <http://www.diplomacy.edu/ig>
>     VirginiaP at diplomacy.edu <mailto:VirginiaP at diplomacy.edu>
>
>     */The latest from Diplo... /*Climate Change Diplomacy: It's
>     current, it's controversial, and it's a top priority. Apply now
>     for our online course at http://www.diplomacy.
>     <http://www.diplomacy.edu/Courses/Climate.asp>
>     edu/Courses/Climate.asp
>     <http://www.diplomacy.edu/Courses/Climate.asp>
>
>
>
>     On 21 July 2011 09:22, michael gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com
>     <mailto:gurstein at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>
>         I have no idea of the truth or falsity of what is described in
>         the below
>         blogpost but whether or not the specific instance is
>         accurate/truthful the
>         overall description which is, I would think, potentially very
>         real may raise
>         some very serious issues including from a global internet
>         governance
>         perspective.
>
>         http://www.twitlonger.com/show/brph8m
>
>         ____________________________________________________________
>         You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>         governance at lists.cpsr.org <mailto:governance at lists.cpsr.org>
>         To be removed from the list, visit:
>         http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
>
>         For all other list information and functions, see:
>         http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance
>         To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
>         http://www.igcaucus.org/
>
>         Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20110723/c6d512af/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t