[governance] ITU - summary of draft ITRs to date

[John Curran]

On Jun 7, 2012, at 11:49 AM, Milton L Mueller wrote:

> Let me give you a more specific example. 
> 
> A proposed change in the ITRs says, 
> 
> 8A.4 "Member States shall take measures to ensure Internet stability and security, to fight cybercrime and to counter spam, while protecting and respecting the provisions for privacy and freedom of expression as contained in the relevant parts of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
> 
> Now if that passes, do you think the presence or absence of that provision in a treaty will have any impact whatsoever on the stability, security of the Internet, the level of spam, or the privacy and foe rights of Internet users? Do you think that the complex trade-offs between freedom of expression, privacy, and fighting cybercrime that have to be operationalized in the real world by ISPs, users and states are affected in any significant way by that? 

Milton - 
 
   I do not believe that the proposed change would directly impact
   Internet stability and security, so in that aspect we are indeed
   agreeing.

   I do believe that the subsequent rulemaking/regulating that each
   country would then engages in, as a result of having the above change 
   in the ITRs, could have a huge impact on the ability for ISPs to form,
   innovate, and run efficiently. Many of us in the telecom industry
   dealt with the regulatory constraints and overhead of the '88 ITRs,
   and are not sanguine about what would happen to the entire Internet 
   ecosystem if a similar approach were taken to Internet services.

   For example, it is not at all unreasonable to consider that Internet
   stability would require at least knowing all of the businesses in a
   country offering Internet services ("Internet Service Providers). As
   a result, many countries would deem that having some form of licensing
   of ISPs is a perfectly reasonable measure.  Now start instituting fees 
   and maybe specific requirements on companies (to make sure any ISP that
   applies are themselves 'stable')

   The next thing you know, you now have numerous licensing applications
   that need to be prepared by attorneys for submission, along with tens 
   of thousands of dollars in fees.  Did that little change to the ITRs 
   improve stability of the Internet?  Hard to tell.   Might the measures
   adopted in each country as a result materially change the ability of 
   the Internet to continue to grow and evolve?  Certainly.

FYI,
/John

Disclaimers: My views alone.  My views consist of the above message,
and for this weekend only, a patio view of wonderful sunny beach.
Expect increased latency on all replies as I will be offline quite a
bit...



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