Article

2003-12-08 International

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Posted by Ron in Colorado 2003-12-08 12:30:51 AM|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Most everything the UN touches turns to s--t. This will be no different. A bloated bureacracy, taxes, squeezes on freedom of speech. Just another way to drain the money from honest working people and stuff already overweight bureaucrats, who produce absolutely nothing, never have, and never will.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2003-12-8 12:49:33 AM|| 2003-12-8 12:49:33 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 I thought Damian Penny linked to an article w/in the last year that Canada was toying w/the idea of taking over all ISPs.

Posted by Anonymous2u 2003-12-8 12:56:00 AM|| 2003-12-8 12:56:00 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 "...a private, U.S.-based organization of technical and business experts known as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number, or ICANN."

(hysterical laughter)

Oh, yeah, no connection to the US gubbmint, no sir...

Posted by mojo 2003-12-8 1:03:02 AM|| 2003-12-8 1:03:02 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 "Itâs always a compromise," said Furrer. "However, as a former journalist, I can stand behind the wording. Countries that uphold the idea of a free media can live with it."

Until another compromise comes along. Drip, drip, drip.

Posted by Steve White 2003-12-8 1:26:33 AM|| 2003-12-8 1:26:33 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 Hey, let's all just pay and pay and pay.

Posted by Lucky 2003-12-8 2:41:38 AM|| 2003-12-8 2:41:38 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 US courts have recently taken quite a fondness to the internet as a medium for free speech. I think there's a high probability of them throwing out any treaty that put it under foreign control.

Posted by Dishman 2003-12-8 3:53:07 AM|| 2003-12-8 3:53:07 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 Dishman - I hope so, but S.D. O'Connor's recent statements about "international law" don't give me warm fuzzies.

Posted by PBMcL 2003-12-8 7:16:55 AM|| 2003-12-8 7:16:55 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 Why are these idiots involved at all? The reason the Internet has prospered is that it is unregulated. This would be the death-knell for the Internet as we know it.

Posted by Spot 2003-12-8 8:36:08 AM|| 2003-12-8 8:36:08 AM|| Front Page Top

#9 Spot-on, Spot. It's just too juicy and important to pass up. Creating a new "fund" will just be a new opportunity for theft - especially in Africa. And no, it won't be anywhere near the free-spirited and free medium it is today after they get their grubby stinking paws on it. Truly sad. We'll be forced to replicate to an undernet so sites such as RantBurg can be read by those who have the misfortune to have been born in one of the wrong places.

Posted by .com 2003-12-8 8:48:05 AM|| 2003-12-8 8:48:05 AM|| Front Page Top

#10 It's time for the US to protect their own freedom of speech by implementing a public library-esque solution (so to speak) for the internet.

It should follow pretty much the same ideology as a public library. We don't need no stinking UN, but what we do need the backbone for a free system that all US citizens (at least) can be guaranteed access without big corporations gobbling up all control. It doesn't need to be as fast or as private owned companies (aka bookstores) but just like public libraries, it needs to be funded and it's free speech rules protected. The servers could be managed by Universities.

Posted by B 2003-12-8 9:21:35 AM|| 2003-12-8 9:21:35 AM|| Front Page Top

#11 Well, at least U.N. Control of Web has been shot down:
GENEVA â The United States, backed by the European Union, Japan and Canada, has turned back a bid by developing nations to place the Internet under the control of the United Nations or its member governments.
But governments, the private sector and others will be asked to establish a mechanism under U.N. auspices to study the governance of the Internet and make recommendations by 2005.
The move came in preparatory talks for the World Summit on the Information Society, opening Wednesday in Geneva. More than 200 delegates from more than 100 countries attended the talks.
The draft declaration to be issued at the end of the conference Friday also includes strong references to freedom of the press and freedom of information online, despite protests by Vietnam and China, which pushed for more restrictions.

Posted by Frank G 2003-12-8 11:12:17 AM|| 2003-12-8 11:12:17 AM|| Front Page Top

#12 Dishman, Unfortunately Treaties which the U.S. enters have the same force as, and sometiems trumps, the U.S. Consitution. Sad but true. This was been used in the past by environuts to enforce restrictions.

So if the U.S. enters a treaty with someone which regulates speech (which may potentially cross over into, say, China - can you say Websites? Blogs?) then it will have the same (or more) force of law as the U.S. Consitution - and voila! Rantburg is illegal (or rantburg is hate-speech).

(Of course I am not a lawyer - dont even play one on T.V. so I may be blowing smoke out of my ass again.) So feel free to correct this if I am wrong.

Posted by CrazyFool 2003-12-8 12:07:31 PM|| 2003-12-8 12:07:31 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 CF:
Not quite right. In US law, a treaty has the same force as a federal statute (or "Act of Congress"). The Constitution is superior to both. As between a treaty and a statute which are in conflict, the most recent prevails.

Posted by Mike 2003-12-8 12:52:18 PM|| 2003-12-8 12:52:18 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 I imagine that in the next decade we'll see an alternate internet built by/for China, Iran,Cuba, North Korea, and other police states, that would find a highly censored version of the internet highly useful.

Why would folks in an outlying village in Africa really need/want internet access? Even if they can afford a computer the download times over those third world telephone lines would be madening. Oh, but if the US also paid for new phone equipment, and of course uninteruptable (and clean yells the green!) power to ensure the access isn't lost due to brownouts.That's the ticket.

Posted by ruprecht 2003-12-8 1:19:33 PM|| 2003-12-8 1:19:33 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 I'm all for chipping in to bring an unregulated (OK, OK, you can stop laughing now) internet to the people of developing countries.

Let's start with the bucks we would save by stopping funds to the PLO, and "letting" Europe pay for it's own defense...

Posted by Hyper 2003-12-8 3:07:20 PM|| 2003-12-8 3:07:20 PM|| Front Page Top

07:16 B
00:51 Lucky
00:25 alaskasoldier
00:01 Glenn (not Reynolds)
23:35 Gasse Katze
23:25 Bomb-a-rama
22:06 B
22:03 Korora
21:51 Jarhead
21:41 Super Hose
21:37 Super Hose
21:21 (lowercase) matt
21:11 Super Hose
21:11 (lowercase) matt
21:09 ruprecht
20:54 ruprecht
20:48 Secret Master
20:46 ruprecht
20:42 ruprecht
20:40 ruprecht
20:14 Alaska Paul
20:11 doc8404
19:13 Shipman
19:05 Shipman