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

[John Curran]

On Apr 17, 2013, at 8:17 AM, Andrea Glorioso <andrea at digitalpolicy.it> wrote:

> Dear John, dear all,
> 
> an observation and a question, in-line below.
> ...
> The observation: often, in order to "fulfil their public policy obligations" (I think it would be better to simply say "their obligations") government *must* take actions that go beyond their borders. One can agree or disagree with the substance of e.g. ACTA and/or with the process through which it was negotiated (I won't take a position on either of the two elements) but it can be argued that "governments" decided to engage in such negotiations because they believed that the protection of the economic interests of national constituencies, relying on various forms of intellectual property protection, could be achieved only via an action which went beyond the national borders - i.e. an international agreement.

Agreed.  Sometimes a government's public policy goals require engagement with other 
governments (which is by definition activities beyond their borders)  I was, probably 
unsuccessfully, trying to note the distinction when it comes to enforcement, where the
 most common accepted practice is that a government enforces laws and regulations 
(such as those from treaties with other governments) with respect to those within its
 borders, and liaisons with other governments to enforce those obligations elsewhere.

> I have stated previously that the Internet community has not provided a clear
> framework for government engagement in "Internet Governance" in the larger 
> context, that being both the management of common global infrastructure unique
> to the Internet as well as the processes by which governments should engage
> to accomplish their public policy objectives.  I will observe that the absence of 
> a clear model for governmental engagement is actually unfortunate in two aspects:
> first, as governments awaken to the need for engagement with respect to the
> Internet, the lack of an Internet community model for accomplishing their public 
> policy goals leads governments to look to older organizations which may not be 
> well-suited to the task; and secondly (and perhaps not quite as obvious) is that 
> a clear model for how governments engage to accomplish their Internet public 
> policy obligations might serve as a roadmap for how the USG evolves from 
> its present unique circumstances in these matters.
> 
> I would say that the "Internet community" (whatever that might be :) has not provided a clear framework for the engagement of all different stakeholders, including governments

Agreed as well.

> (if you wish to consider governments or public authorities as a "stakeholder" - I have certain problems with such a conceptualisation, but again food for another discussion).

:-)  

I believe that "government" must have the ability to participate as any other 
stakeholder, but additionally, it's unique ability with respect to the use of force
(and generalized into enforcement of laws) means that it may have additional
roles to play when it comes to enforcement of norms/principles/standards/etc
beyond that which we may incorporate into any framework of "Internet Governance".

> Therefore my question: I seem to remember that some time ago some of the people writing on this list (it might have been Wolfgang Kleinwaechter, but I might be wrong) launched the idea of developing a set of principles / guidelines to develop such a framework. Is this still being discussed somewhere?


Ah, I am probably not the best one to address such a question; I am here as a resource 
in the support of this groups activities as needed, but will be the first to admit that the level 
of activity on this list is sufficiently impressive that I can't quite keep track all of the various
ongoing efforts...

/John

Disclaimer:  My views alone.  


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