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

[David Conrad]

Parminder,

On Jun 22, 2012, at 6:46 PM, parminder wrote:
> It is important to know that among all countries the US has the worst record for similar unilateral action effecting foreign lands and nationals.


"Among all countries the US has the worst record"? [citation needed]

> US's Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is the key operative unit in this regard. 

In a previous message, I stated (in a part which you appear to have ignored):

"Yet in that "unending" list, I challenge you to provide even a _single_ example in which the US government has used its role in root management to do _anything_ that didn't abide by existing root management policies and practices."

> It is my understanding that a simple order from the Office of Foreign Assets Control to ICANN/ Verisign could put provision of root server services to Cuba and its nationals ( and those of some other countries) under similar sanctions. That is how close we are to what many think is an impossible calamity.

And yet, despite those sanctions being in place long before the DNS (or the Internet existed), root zone changes for Cuba have not gone unprocessed. Nor have root zone changes for North Korea. Or Sudan. Or Libya. Or Iran. Or Syria. Or Iraq. Etc.

The root zone has been maintained by US-based entities since the creation of the DNS. During that period, there have been myriad opportunities for OFAC (or its predecessors) to intercede, including periods when the US was at war, had imposed sanctions at various levels of severity, had refused diplomatic relations, etc., with countries that have requested changes to the root zone. 

I reiterate my challenge above: provide even a _single_ example.

Objective observers might conclude that either OFAC-based sanctions do not apply to processes involving ccTLDs as they are treated as national sovereign resources or alternatively, OFAC is involved and the USG might see strategic value in not enforcing OFAC-based sanctions to those resources.  In either case, please explain how the operational arm of the "international oversight mechanism" would not be subject to the laws or whims of its hosting country.

Regards,
-drc

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20120624/bb1d01e8/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