[governance] US House Bill to Affirm the Policy of the United States Regarding Internet Governance

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On 14/04/2013, at 11:26 PM, Milton L Mueller <mueller at syr.edu> wrote:
 
> So this is obviously nonsense; it is not US policy to promote a global Internet free from government control, only free from the control of other governments besides itself.  
>  
> Jeremy:
> It seems you did not pay very close attention to the deliberations on the bill in the U.S. Congress. Had you listened to Rep. Eshoo, who spoke in opposition to the bill immediately after its introduction, it was noted that the NTIA, FCC and other USG departments linked to the Obama admin. had expressed concern that the bill’s opposition to “government control” as stated might actually be interpreted to challenge the U.S. Commerce Department’s IANA contract and control over ICANN.

On the contrary, I knew that Eshoo had expressed concerns but also that those concerns had been ignored: the Public Knowledge website is helpful in including booth Eshoo's letter (A) and a blog about how it fared (B).

A: http://www.publicknowledge.org/files/Letter%20to%20Chairman%20Walden%20from%20Ranking%20Member%20Eshoo%2002-25-13.pdf
B: http://www.publicknowledge.org/blog/will-walden-wipe-out-dmca-just-hack-net-neutr


> Based on this new information, I look forward to a turnaround on your view of the legislation. ;-)

Based on my new information, I'm looking forward to your turnaround too. :-)

> Of course, you can argue for more beneficial interpretations by defining "control" and "multistakeholder model" expansively, but even so this bill is just going to entrench the standoff between the US and other countries, which is not going to be helpful in reaching compromise on the evolution of Internet governance arrangements this year...
>  
> [Milton L Mueller] What other countries are you talking about? China? Russia? Saudi Arabia? U.A.E.? Iran? What kind of compromise are you talking about? Concessions to “government control?” Perhaps a bit more government control than we have now in order to keep the Saudis happy?


No, resuming the unfinished work of the WGIG and WSIS towards a model of enhanced cooperation in Internet governance policy making, as now before the new CSTD working group.

-- 
Dr Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Policy Officer
Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for consumers
Office for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East
Lot 5-1 Wisma WIM, 7 Jalan Abang Haji Openg, TTDI, 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: +60 3 7726 1599

WCRD 2013 – Consumer Justice Now! | Consumer Protection Map: https://wcrd2013.crowdmap.com/main | #wcrd2013

@Consumers_Int | www.consumersinternational.org | www.facebook.com/consumersinternational

Read our email confidentiality notice. Don't print this email unless necessary.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20130415/5b708f1d/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