[governance] U.N. takeover of the Internet must be stopped, U.S. warns

[Milton L Mueller]

Can someone explain to me what a "host country agreement" accomplishes for Internet users and service operators?

My vague understanding of it is that from a legal perspective, such agreements can actually immunize the organization from various forms of legal accountability which, imho, is not something we want to do. For example, ICANN _should_ be subject to antitrust law; it _should_  be subject to the membership requirements of California public benefit law (and stop pretending that it doesn't have members).

And, those of you who want this to happen because California law is too remote and parochial for, say a villager in Zimbabwe, please explain to me how a host country agreement in Geneva is any more accessible to a villager in Zimbabw? The government of Zimbabwe, perhaps, but the people there?

This could just be my own ignorance of a what a host country agreement is, but please, let's make the rights and benefits it affords Netizens the standard here, not conformity to past intergovernmental patterns.
--MM

________________________________
From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org<mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org> [governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] on behalf of William Drake [william.drake at uzh.ch]
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2012 11:07 AM
To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org<mailto:governance at lists.igcaucus.org>
Subject: Re: [governance] U.N. takeover of the Internet must be stopped, U.S. warns

On Jun 1, 2012, at 2:47 PM, Avri Doria wrote:


I personally beleive, and have believed for a long time, that it should have a host country agreement with an appropriate host country.

Me too, and we are waiting patiently here in Geneva.   But on the off chance that proves a tough sell in certain quarters, how about something more incremental: independent of the USG, with a host country agreement, in the US?  There's a few international organizations there that have these already...

Bill

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20120601/9ef5ba09/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/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