[governance] NYT opinion by Vint Cerf: Internet Access is not a HR

[Roland Perry]

In message <4F05927F.3040302 at cafonso.ca>, at 10:07:27 on Thu, 5 Jan 
2012, Carlos A. Afonso <ca at cafonso.ca> writes
>Hmmm... strange indeed. Internet access is access to the huge and
>diversified space which represents this network of networks in its
>multiple instances, levels, layers etc. It is far from being "just
>technology", as the very extensive debate on Internet governance going
>on since the WSIS process exhaustively demonstrates -- not forgetting as
>well that the right to communicate is a fundamental right.

What Vint is saying is that while there's strong support for a right to 
communicate, that doesn't mean there's a right to have every means of 
communication (that's where he's coming from with analogy about horses).

There's also a right to free movement, but this doesn't prevent most 
administrations making the holding of a driving licence a privilege 
rather than a right, which can be taken away for comparatively minor 
infringements.

>The question is not whether Dr Cerf is way off the mark here -- this is
>trivial -- but why did this accomplished engineer and corporate
>executive decide to descend from his "interplanetary Internet" dreams
>and delve into the communication rights debate?

You could try asking him.
-- 
Roland Perry
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