[governance] Internet as a commons/ public good
Katitza Rodriguez
katitza at eff.org
Tue Apr 16 11:32:12 EDT 2013
Can you define "common pool". Your comments are interesting... (sorry
for jumping in the middle of the discussion). : )
On 4/16/13 8:25 AM, Milton L Mueller wrote:
>
> Parminder:
>
> Are you again floating the discredited and theoretically inaccurate
> notion that something called “the Internet” is a “commons” and “public
> good?” These claims are just wrong, and have been dealt with years
> ago. If interested I can direct you to the scientific literature on this.
>
> The Internet _/standards/_ are open and non-proprietary, and thus can
> accurately be called the basis of a commons and a public good.
> Internet services, web sites, etc. are private goods; they are both
> rival in consumption and excludable. Internet access facilities are
> private goods. There is no meaningful debate about this; either you
> understand the definition of public goods and commons and the economic
> characteristics of these resources or you don’t.
>
> Our research on IP addressing discusses the status of IP addresses as
> common pool resources. Likewise, other work addresses the status of
> domain names. Both IP addresses and domain names are private goods but
> may be regulated in a common pool fashion, or not, depending on what
> works best. I presume you know what common pool governance is.
>
> It seems to make many people feel good to claim that certain things
> are commons or public goods. There seems to be no other reason why the
> claim is so persistent, despite being completely out of line with
> facts and the economic realities of internet resources. But wishing
> doesn’t make it so, and false application of concepts can only lead to
> disastrous policy. These are precise terms with important policy
> implications. One should respect facts and the basic scientific
> principles of political economy and derive public policy from that,
> not the other way around.
>
> *From:*governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org
> [mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] *On Behalf Of *parminder
> *Sent:* Monday, April 15, 2013 12:51 AM
> *To:* governance at lists.igcaucus.org
> *Subject:* [governance] Internet as a commons/ public good; was,
> Conflicts in Internet Governance
>
>
> Anriette/ All
>
> I find this posting, and later ones in the thread very interesting.
> Indeed a good amount of confusion in this group's internal
> interactions owe to the fact that while we have some broad process
> rules, we have very little in terms of substance that we can take as a
> starting point for our political/ advocacy work. Recognising the
> Internet as a commons/ public good, and seeking that its basic
> governance principles flow from such a basic understanding of the
> Internet, is good and useful basic agreement to try to reach for this
> group,
>
> I propose that the caucus adopts this as a/ the basic principle for
> IGC's political/ advocacy work.
>
> I propose that we even go beyond and adopt a working definition of the
> Internet, absence of which itself has been identified as a major
> problem that renders many of our discussions/ positions here unclear.
> Avri proposes the following definition, which I find very encouraging....
>
> "Internet as an emergent, and emerging, reality consisting of
> hardware, protocols and software, and human intentionality brought
> together by a common set of design principles and constrained by
> policies fashioned by the stakeholders."
>
>
> I propose small modifications to it
>
> "Internet as an emergent, and emerging, reality consisting of
> hardware, protocols and software, human intentionality, and a new kind
> of social spatiality, brought together by a common set of design
> principles and constrained by policies fashioned by due democratic
> processes."
>
>
> So what I propose for this caucus to adopt is as follows
>
> "We recognise the Internet as an emergent, and emerging, reality
> consisting of hardware, protocols and software, human intentionality,
> and a new kind of social spatiality, brought together by a common set
> of design principles and constrained by policies fashioned by due
> democratic processes. Accordingly, the Internet is to be considered as
> a global commons and a global public good. The design principles and
> policies that constitute the governance of the Internet should must
> flow from such recognition of the Internet as a commons and a public
> good."
>
> The text can of course be improved a lot, but I thought it is good to
> put forward something that the caucus can work upon...
>
> parminder
>
>
>
> On Sunday 14 April 2013 10:28 PM, Anriette Esterhuysen wrote:
>
> The question is, what is needed to protect and strengthen the internet
>
> commons?
>
> As Avri points out, governments have assisted the theft of the commons.
>
> I would say that the form that this assistance takes ranges from lack of
>
> the basic regulation that is needed to protect it to active protection
>
> of certain vested interests. That is why the notion of an 'unregulated'
>
> internet is so problematic and why the notion of an open and unregulated
>
> internet can so easily be a contradiction in terms.
>
>
>
> There needs to be some basic rules that makes sure that the internet
>
> remains 'open and free' in a broad sense.
>
>
>
> The risks, or the challenges related to this is that many governments
>
> approach regulation of the internet not from the perspective of
>
> protecting it as a commons, but from the perspective of enabling them to
>
> exercise more control over internet content and use, and user behaviour.
>
>
>
> I remain convinced that one of the difficulties in internet governance
>
> is that there is a conceptual/principle deficit of some kind. Not so
>
> much statement of principles that affirm freedom of expression,
>
> 'net-neutrality', etc.. Those are good....
>
>
>
> I think they real deficit is in how the internet is defined, or what
>
> kind of entity we understand it to be.
>
>
>
> When the management and supply of water is being regulated there are
>
> also lots of contestation. For example between mines, communities who
>
> live in the catchment area, communities who live downstream subject to
>
> seasonal flooding, cities and commercial farms who need dams, and nature
>
> conservation and reservers, where traditional seasonal flooding is often
>
> essential to the survival of many species.
>
>
>
> Policy would generally try to understand and balance all these interests
>
> and will be premised on a common understanding that water is a common
>
> resource. The public interest principles will be fairly easily
>
> understood by most that are involved water policy and regulation. But
>
> there will be lots of argument about how it is managed, and used and
>
> often the wrong decisions will be made.
>
>
>
> I just had a glance at the CGI.br principles and the IRP 10 principles
>
> and neither statement contains anything that suggests what the internet
>
> - from the perspective of it being a 'commons' or a public good - is. I
>
> know I have been dwelling on this ONE KEY 'principle' deficit for a
>
> while... but I just can't give thinking it is at the root of the
>
> difficulties we have in addressing the conflicts of interest in internet
>
> governance.
>
>
>
> Anriette
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 14/04/2013 02:50, Avri Doria wrote:
>
> All of the Internet, like the land world before it, was once commons. Then, as before, the rich, the powerful and greedy, with the assistance of the governments they bought, and continue to buy, began to misappropriate those commons and called it property. Each day more of that commons its stolen. Each day more of the linguistic commons is stolen and called intellectual property. The Internet commons is almost gone. This its what government do best - with some very few exceptions - assist in the theft of the commons.
>
>
>
> I have no problem with those who create art or new Internet spaces enjoying the fruits of their creativity and inventiveness. A neologism may be owned. A new Internet space may be owned. But the language itself or the Internet should not be.
>
>
>
> Diego Rafael Canabarro<diegocanabarro at gmail.com> <mailto:diegocanabarro at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> At the International Studies Association Annual Convention last week in
>
> San
>
> Francisco, an official from the US Department of State said: "there's
>
> no
>
> commons on cyberspace". That perception is closely related to the
>
> conflict
>
> presented by Mr. Perry bellow in this thread. I'm still struggling with
>
> that assertion.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 12:20 PM, Norbert Bollow<nb at bollow.ch> <mailto:nb at bollow.ch> wrote:
>
>
>
> Roland Perry<roland at internetpolicyagency.com> <mailto:roland at internetpolicyagency.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> One of the most significant I'm aware of (and I hope this is within
>
> the remit of your question):
>
> It definitely is, and it's a conflict that I have not been
>
> sufficiently
>
> conscious of, so thank you very much for pointing this out!
>
>
>
> Greetings,
>
> Norbert
>
>
>
> The private sector has built extensive
>
> networks [fixed and mobile] using $billons of investment on which
>
> their shareholders [many of whom are the consumers' pension funds]
>
> expect a return, versus many customers who feel entitled to have
>
> unlimited usage for a relatively trivial monthly payment (which
>
> they
>
> sometimes dress up as "Network Neutrality").
>
>
>
> I post this not to support either of the above points of view, but
>
> merely to inform readers of the conflict it unquestionably
>
> represents.
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Diego R. Canabarro
>
> http://lattes.cnpq.br/4980585945314597
>
>
>
> --
>
> diego.canabarro [at] ufrgs.br
>
> diego [at] pubpol.umass.edu
>
> MSN: diegocanabarro [at] gmail.com
>
> Skype: diegocanabarro
>
> Cell # +55-51-9244-3425 (Brasil) / +1-413-362-0133 (USA)
>
> --
>
> Avri Doria
>
>
>
--
Katitza Rodriguez
International Rights Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
katitza at eff.org
katitza at datos-personales.org (personal email)
Please support EFF - Working to protect your digital rights and freedom of speech since 1990
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