[governance] [liberationtech] Chinese preparing for a "Autonomous Internet" ?

[Lee W McKnight]

To clarify again - and since we are talking both administrative procedures and worst case scenarios - I do indeed highlight the hypothetical 'firebreak' potential of the limited US control of the root zone servers; which is of course augmented/reinforced by all the other servers out there. Since USG/DOC/NTIA does not have administrative control of those other servers.

And of course that mattering is in the 'highly unlikely' category.   As would be the hypothetical case of - some - root zone servers engaging in root zone file disobedience.

But then, as I note in other contexts, Fukushima taught nuclear power plant operators - and governments and the public - that whatever they thought was the worst case scenario, things could be much worse than that.  So fair enough and it is indeed worth discussing various worst case scenarios and how resilient the net and internet governance mechanisms are to various - worst cases.

Which is still a different matter from discussing further internationalization/globalization is needed, which I also subscribe to.

Lee


________________________________
From: pouzin at gmail.com [pouzin at gmail.com] on behalf of Louis Pouzin (well) [pouzin at well.com]
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 12:06 PM
To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org; parminder
Subject: [governance] [liberationtech] Chinese preparing for a "Autonomous Internet" ?

On Fri, Jun 22, 2012 at 6:25 AM, parminder <parminder at itforchange.net<mailto:parminder at itforchange.net>> wrote:

I think we had cleared this level long back in our argument that we are *not* any longer discussing the 'technical possibility' of the root server operators not publishing the authoritative root zone file but the 'socio-political' likelihood that they would in fact do such a thing. Stephanie had spoken of this likelihood and not the 'technical possibility', and, in this regard, expressed disagreement with David. To quote Stephanie's email "unless its operator decides to break free; unlike David Conrad, I regard this as highly unlikely.......... "

And since you answered to this statement with an apology of possible misunderstanding, I was confounded, because I thought you have been saying all along that you indeed think that if the US did interfere with the root, the root server operators, other than the one under US gov contract, will in fact 'break free'. (Lee and others supported and built on this argument as the principal element in the discussion about possible misuse of US's control over the root.)

I repeat, I dont think such 'breaking free' is likely and therefore the so called current distributed root server architecture *does not* provide us protection against likely improper interference of the US with the root.

parminder

- - -

You are dead right, Parminder. But there are plenty of smart net professionals who know how to twist the architecture.

In case of USG interference with the ICANN root zone, predicting the reactions of the 3 non US based root servers is rather uncertain. Their operators may be politically sensitive and under pressure exerted by the powers that be.

However, the rumor of root poisoning would spread like bush fire across social nets. As there are zillions of root copies in ISPs, corporate nets, and even individual computers, it would not take long to switch to servers feeding a previous correct version (remember Wikileaks). Then Verisign would apologize for an unfortunate snafu in an updating operation, and business would return to usual. A positive effect would be a debunking of the central root myth.

There could be as well negative effects on some users and institutions. Who knows ? Then they would realize that they are living under a Damocles sword. If they don't like it, it's up to them to consider practical alternatives.

- - -

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