U.N. to Seek Control of the Internet

[allthingsluxury]

Keep yourself informed. This wouldn't be good for anyone, anywhere. The internet needs to remain free and open. The last thing we need is growth to be stifled by unnecessary laws and regulations. Read the following article below to learn more:

Next week the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union will meet in Dubai to figure out how to control the Internet. Representatives from 193 nations will attend the nearly two week long meeting, according to news reports.

"Next week the ITU holds a negotiating conference in Dubai, and past months have brought many leaks of proposals for a new treaty. U.S. congressional resolutions and much of the commentary, including in this column, have focused on proposals by authoritarian governments to censor the Internet. Just as objectionable are proposals that ignore how the Internet works, threatening its smooth and open operations," reports the Wall Street Journal.

"Having the Internet rewired by bureaucrats would be like handing a Stradivarius to a gorilla. The Internet is made up of 40,000 networks that interconnect among 425,000 global routes, cheaply and efficiently delivering messages and other digital content among more than two billion people around the world, with some 500,000 new users a day....

"Proposals for the new ITU treaty run to more than 200 pages. One idea is to apply the ITU's long-distance telephone rules to the Internet by creating a 'sender-party-pays' rule. International phone calls include a fee from the originating country to the local phone company at the receiving end. Under a sender-pays approach, U.S.-based websites would pay a local network for each visitor from overseas, effectively taxing firms such as Google and Facebook. The idea is technically impractical because unlike phone networks, the Internet doesn't recognize national borders. But authoritarians are pushing the tax, hoping their citizens will be cut off from U.S. websites that decide foreign visitors are too expensive to serve."

Arthur Herman explains "The UN's Internet Grab" here.

And even Google has already come out against the ITU.

"The ITU is the wrong place to make decisions about the future of the Internet," says Google. "Only governments have a voice at the ITU. This includes governments that do not support a free and open Internet. Engineers, companies, and people that build and use the web have no vote."

"The ITU is also secretive. The treaty conference and proposals are confidential," adds Google.

- Source, The Weekly Standard:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/un-seek-control-internet_664018.html

[theymos]

Are they likely to ever gain much control over anything besides DNS, you think? This seems unlikely to me due to how decentralized it all is.

[pekv2]

http://falkvinge.net/2012/05/09/uk-considers-opt-in-freedom-of-speech/
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2225564/uk-government-is-going-headlong-for-internet-filtering

Need to fight this as best as everyone can.

[niko]

Many governments are already actively controling the traffic (not just listening, which is what pretty much every government is doing).  Is there any example of a country where Bitcoin has technical problems due to control and regulation? It works in China, Russia, Thailand, the U.S., U.K. So, while you may dislike this story for ideological reasons, there is no direct threat to Bitcoin.

[matthewh3]

That's why I support 'The Free Network Foundation' - http://thefnf.org/

We envision communications infrastructure that is owned and operated cooperatively, by the whole of humanity, rather than by corporations and states.
We are using the power of peer-to-peer technologies to create a global network which is resistant to censorship and breakdown.
We promote freedoms, support innovations and advocate technologies that enhance and enable digital self-determination.

You can donate to the cause with bitcoins too - http://commons.thefnf.org/index.php/Needs

[Lethn]

This is why I'm a member of the internet defense league!

Yes, that is a real thing.

[Charlie Prime]

The World Government will eventually control the Internets.

There was a time when most people thought government licensure to drive a car was insane.  Now it's the opposite.

This is a long-term plan.

[Lethn]

If they touch my internet porn they're dead.

[dotcom]

they gotta tax everything don't they?

[RodeoX]

Because of me and you, they aren't going do $#!t.