EU Claims Internet Could Fall Apart Next Month

freaktheclown writes "The battle for the control of the Internet could hit a climax next month, with the EU saying that it could 'fall apart.' From the article: 'The European commission is warning that if a deal cannot be reached at a meeting in Tunisia next month the Internet will split apart. At issue is the role of the US government in overseeing the Internet's address structure, called the domain name system (DNS), which enables communication between the world's computers. It is managed by the California-based, not-for-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) under contract to the US Department of Commerce.'"

Icann's motto...

Icann, and you can't.

Internet... fall apart?

But... what will all the Slashdotters do with their time? Surely you can't expect us all to... *gulp* leave our computers?

Fall Apart?

What can happen is that a bunch of governments set up their own root servers which no ISP in their right mind will direct their DNS servers at. Nothing will change and the world will continue as it was, except someone gets to look a bit silly.

Re:Fall Apart?

> which no ISP in their right mind will direct their DNS servers at.

They will enact laws requiring it. Then the customers will start pointing their workstations and access points at open DNS servers in the Free portions of the Internet, the Great Firewall of Europe will be erected to block access to the Free DNS servers and finally people will be fined for pointing at the 'wrong' DNS servers. THEN the heads will start going up on pointy sticks. The big question is whether there remains enough of a spark of Freedom to make it the government officials heads the ones on the sticks or whether it will be the 'traitors' among the users who refuse to use the state sponsored servers.

Re:Fall Apart?

Or more likely:

1) Various govs. set up their own root servers. People in that country use their root servers.

2) The operators of the various root servers keep them synchronized with each other.

3) The internet continues to operate just fine.

Sounds like...

...a whole new definition to the term "netslpit"...

Bush was right

There will be Internets after all.

Just to be clear

The European commission is warning that if a deal cannot be reached at a meeting in Tunisia next month the internet will split apart.

Just to restate - the internet's not going to "fall apart" on it's own. They're planning on breaking it. The terminology they use makes it sound like the network's fragile and about to break. That's not the case.

Rubbish

This would require everyone in the EU to reconfigure the nameservers to point at a different set of root servers overnight. It's just not going to happen. Speaking as someone in the EU running a number of nameservers I'm not going to do this if it effects my ability to resolve domain names correctly. I might, overtime, add some additional EU nameservers if they are none disruptive but this will be a gradual process.

Newsflash

This just in from Chicken Little- The Sky is Falling. Isn't it amazing that now suddenly if they don't get control the whole thing is going to fail? Wonder how it has held up all of these years.

Re:Newsflash

Wonder how it has held up all of these years.

Isn't it obvious? European governments weren't involved in designing or running it. Is it a coincidence that as soon as they decide to inject themselves into the situation that now the net is going to "fall apart"? I don't think so.

It's like when you buy that new DVD player, and only allow the adults in your house to use it. It works fine, right? But as soon as you let your five year old kid near it, all of a sudden it's clogged up with peanut butter. This is no different.

Alternative

I assume that it's mostly the French govt. pushing this. Perhaps they could develop their own alternative to the Internet. It could be run by the French telecom which could use telecom infrastructure and distribute some kind of network appliance to all of their customers. Oh, wait ...

Welcome to 1983, Europe.

Imminent Death of the 'Net Predicted! [catb.org]

Film at 11. USENET cliche [google.com] by 1989. EU resolution in 2006... 2017? 2038?

The problem is

ICANN is not a multi billion $ mega corporation. If it were one no country would have bothered about this. All the politicians would have gotton some kickbacks and would have been happy letting them control do what ever they want.

Wanna read something scary?

FTA:

The EU plan was applauded by states such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, leading the former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt to express misgivings on his weblog: "It seems as if the European position has been hijacked by officials that have been driven by interests that should not be ours.

"We really can't have a Europe that is applauded by China and Iran and Saudi Arabia on the future governance of the internet. Even those critical of the United States must see where such a position risks taking us."

As I've said before, I'll be happy if the issue of IP address allocation is handled by the ITU. DNS should not be under the control of a central organization.

Notice that in the U.S. you are permitted to use any DNS you may like? Sure the root DNS server is Icann moderated, but you can select anything?

Anyone believe Iran (I'm 1/2 Persian) will allow that? Or China?

Or that China will permit a Taiwanese TLD in the New, UN-moderated, EU-sponsored DNS governing association?

Places like S. Arabia, China, and Iran can't wait for DNS to be controlled by the UN, because all kinds of silly nonsense happens in UN politics. Although China may have its sights set on the RoC, as of know, its insane to posit that Taiwan isn't an independant nation.

Yet the UN does not recognize it as such.....

Just my 2 cents.

Future news

Six month's since the Internet fragmented into a thousand separate networks, companies across the globe report an astounding 600% increase in productivity on average. Said one spokeperson, "Not only have computer virus infections fallen to an all time low, we're saving over 98% of our bandwidth costs. Plus, we have so much budget left over each month from our IT operations, we're rolling out a profit sharing plan to all our employees." Numerous businesses report skyrocketing demand. For example, print media said they've seen an explosion in demand for magazines. Of course, all is not good news. Some technology companies have reported a drastic drop in demand for many of their products. "We are having a real tough quarter," said one Symantec sales manager, on condition of anonymity. Cisco also reported much less demand for it's high end networking boxes. "We can't give 'em away. I've never seen anything like it."

A brief word of sense to the EU bashers out there.

The EU is not trying to destroy the internet, it is trying to do quite the opposite; it has recognised that countries like China, Brazil and Iran are making strong moves to setting up their own independant root servers, irrespective of the US.

They are trying to act as brokers between this position, which is not in the interest of the EU, and the maverick US position, which flatly disclaims any notion of international coordination on these issues. Repeat after me: the EU is not trying to split the internet, they are trying to maintain the current cohesion.

They are a broker between two arguments, and should be applauded as such, rather than vilified and slandered as 'splitters' or malcontents.

'The EU does not intend to scrap Icann. It would continue in its current technical role.

Instead Europe is suggesting a way of allowing countries to express their position on internet issues, though the details on how this would happen are vague.

"We have no intention to regulate the internet," said Commissioner Reding, reassuring the US that the EU was not proposing setting up a new global body.

Rather she talked of a "model of cooperation", of an international forum to discuss the internet.'

[Taken from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4327928.stm [bbc.co.uk]

The Main Problem EU has with current situation

I think the main problem is that at any time, the US can have a veto right on what happens. Think whatever you want, but as a country, if a foreign country has that much power on my infrastructure and public service I would quite simply do whatever I can to get out of the situation. That is what is happenning here. The WORLD does not want any country having a veto power over their own service. You think most country want to policy internet you are quite missing the point. They could ALREADY simply do it without DNS control by policing to hell the ISP (if you want to sell internet connection then you have to obey the local law). They do not need control of the DNS server. They only want to make sure that even if the US suddenly want to impose policy change, then their infrastructure won't be criplled overnight or influenced...

The hole solution

They will usher the bureaucrats out to the gallows and the hole problem will be solved.

I assume by this you mean filling said holes with bureaucrats after they are finished with Project Gallows.

Happily, this may also reduce required funds for road maintenience so it's really a win-win. :-)

Re:Isn't it obvious...

"Still. Why leave the USA to handle it all? I'd rather see either a newer/better/improved system (than DNS)"

Because it is working, and is not being abused. Why change something that continues to operate effectively ? If the EU cuts off US DNS servers, the only people who will suffer are the EU citazens and buisnesses. I just can't see this happening.

A few questions

Which principle is more important: ICANN remaining a US company; or protecting free speech on the internet?

Is every solution that guarantees free speech dependent on ICANN remaining under US control?

Which principle should be safe-guarded, and which one is negotiable?

If this is really what the debate is about, I can kind of understand the EU's concerns in specific hypothetical circumstances, though I don't understand the intransigence of the US representatives.

I suspect though that this is just a dick-size war, and we'll find out later on that it's really all posturing to show a position of strength for GATT negotiations.

Re:What of pornography?

It's intuitively obvious to even the most casual observer that the reason behind this EU and UN grab for internet power is in order to suppress speech they disagree with. If not that, then why bother?

You don't think it's possible that these guys are just jealous that they don't control it and want it just because they don't have it?

Besides, most people are reasonably happy with ICANN. I wish they were going after Verisign and the root certs instead, those are the real bastards.

ICANN does not control IPs or routing in any way

ICANN does not control IP allocation at all. IP blocks are allocated by IANA to regional internet registries (ARIN for the Americas, RIPE for Europe and APNIC for Asia to name a few). The regional registries then allocate smaller blocks to organizations in their area.

Routing is different still. No registry guarantees the IP blocks they allocate will be globally routable. Most network providers have their own criteria for determining which networks they will accept routes for.

So, as you can see, ICANN has no part in the allocation or routing of IP addresses.

Re:The Financial Motivation Behind This

It's defensive maneuvering, in anticipation of the US exerting greater control.

Cuo Bono? Who knows, for now. But as cyberwar becomes a reality, and access to the internet becomes evermore an economic necessity, the EU is not happy with one nation having too much control over teh internets.

Would any nation willing cede control of its highways to another nation? I think not.

So, to answer your question of who benefits:

Potentially, any nation that is not the US. Any company doing internet business within any country not in the US. The politicians, who gain a better public image by standing up to the unpopular US.

If you're looking for corporate profits, I'm sure there are some companies that stand to make some cash. Enough to create a diplomatic crisis? Doubt it.

Re:The Financial Motivation Behind This

But who are the corporate winners? Call me a cynic, but I'm far too jaded to believe this is all one big "f*ck you" to the US. And I refuse to believe its about "control" when our control isn't the least bit restrictive.

In some countries, the problem IS that the US "isn't the least bit restrictive". Remember, there are some countries out there that don't have Freedom of Speech, Religion, Protest, Anonymity or many other things. Think of the Great Fire Wall of China for starters. Then there are those that also want to eliminate all the porn on the internet. So yes, I'd say it is about "control", or lack there of.

Someone's going to make bank off this. Politicians are puppets not puppetmasters. Who profits? Follow the money.

Only is some places are Politicians puppets, not all. Tell me Castro is a puppet, or that Stalin was one as well. Money isn't the end all of everything, "power" is. It's just that in some places, money can give power. At best, the only company I can think of to make some money off of this is Cisco, selling more hardware, but probably not as some countries are looking at implementing their own standards that are incompatible with what everyone else uses. Those who provide filtering technologies and fire walls stand to lose a great deal. No nead to filter if the nets are physically seperate. Those are just the major players I can think of.