Senator Wants to Keep U.N. Away From the Internet

Martin Boleman writes "ZDNet reports that Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican from Minnesota, said his nonbinding resolution would protect the Internet from a takeover by the United Nations that's scheduled to be discussed at a summit in Tunisia next month. "The Internet is likely to face a grave threat, If we fail to respond appropriately, we risk the freedom and enterprise fostered by this informational marvel and end up sacrificing access to information, privacy and protection of intellectual property we have all depended on." he said in a statement."

Re:freedom?

[Anonymous Coward]

From the same country that brought you the monopolizing telcos

Hey now, leave Britain out of this!

A modest proposal...

[farrellj]

Time for the internet to declare it's independance!

Let's have a Boston DNS party!

Tell the US & UN to get stuffed!

ttyl
          Farrell ...with tongue lightly planted in cheek...

Re:Can someone explain this to me?

[Kafka_Canada]

If the Internet were developed in, say, Sweden, the US would be the ones complaining that the UN needs to take it over.

No, the UN would be the ones complaining that the US needs to get out of Sweden.

Reasons?

[E-Rock-23]

A few thoughts:

The US wants to keep control for purely financial reasons. They want to gouge other countries for access, and allow the big telecoms to maintain their control on the flow of information at asinine prices.

Or, they want to keep control for moral reasons. Remember, Alberto "Gonzo" Gonzales has started his Porn Squad (not to attack only kiddie porn sites, but consenting adult sites as well) in some sort of twisted moral crusade. Well, there is a buttload of porn on the net, isn't there. If we keep control, he can stamp it out...

Another reason could be "National Security," though I'm pretty sure they already spend an asinine amount of money to keep sensitive stuff off of the 'Net to begin with. The Internet is no longer a super-secret Pentagon project, and has been publicly available for over a decade. I remember reading somewhere that works of the Government are in the Public Domain. Dunno if that applys to just images and text, or to secret, non-military projects like the Internet (again, now that it's been made public, not prior).

I say we share control with the world at large. Except with the French. The French are too weird. And most certainly not with the UN, corrupt an organisation as that is. It should be a seperate, international consortium with equal power for all countries involved. There shouldn't be one "regulator," and especially not the United States.

But that's just me, and I don't count...

Re:freedom?

[Decameron81]

"You would rather China have a say in the administration of the internet?"

Nope. If you read the article again you'll notice that it's not about China, but the UN.

Let me run the internet

[doormat]

I think I should be appointde to run the internet. I'll be a benevolent dictator. And I got lots of guns.

Re:well that would suck.

[LikwidFlux]

Or else you wouldn't be able to post blatant worthless material just so you'd be a first poster?

Re:Americans

[Daniel_Staal]

Where are my mod points when I need them?

Consider the FBI Obscentity Taskforce

[FatSean]

I'd rather live on a net where I can't talk about Nazis, than on one where puritanical hypocrits prevent me from seeing boobs!

Re:.us domain?

[Capt James McCarthy]

If aliens would like to see webpage of WHOLE earth's goverment, where would they go?

www.$$$$$.com?

Re:freedom?

[Delphiki]

The internet can only truely be free if it is outside the control of a single government.

Yes, how true. More governments being involved always means more freedom.

Re:Statist Musical Chairs

[Tibor the Hun]

I'm hypothetically confused.

is the US the wife-beater and the rest of the world has a duty to stop it, or

is Saddam the wife-beater and US had a duty to stop him?

Re:freedom?

[ifwm]

"At least in Europe children are not indoctrinated with retarded ideas such as creationism."

At least in America, children are taught to respect others' beliefs, even if they don't make sense.

Re:Screw them

[Deternal]

Okay fine, you keep tcp/ip, then we europeans keep http and www thank you very much.

Re:Statist Musical Chairs

[killjoe]

Well to clarify your analogy it actually goes like this.

YOu decide to stop the wife beater, you go in and catch him, when his children try to stop you, you kill them, when his friends try to stop you you kill them too. Then you decide that he has a pretty decent house and take a room for yourself, nobody is allowed in there except you, if anybody tries you kill them. You also decide that his daughter is cute (her name is OIL) and decide that you want some of that yourself so you start raping her too.

You don't turn over the wife beater to the police, you keep him locked up in a secret location, you are now keeping residence at his house and killing anybody who tries to oust you, you tell his children what to do and when, you rape his daughter regularly.

Nice....

Re:freedom?

[Paul Jakma]

And the web was created by an Englishman paid for by EU grants. So we own the web and you'll have to give it back. Also, we own Boolean logic, if we take that back then the USA has to go back to early-19th century technology - so you'd better be nice or your internet will just disappear altogether.

BTW, the Arabs "own" enough of math to send us all back to dark ages - we'd better be nice to them from now on I think.

--paulj

List of things to return

[orzetto]

So, if the US invented it they "own" it?

The Web was invented in Switzerland by a Belgian with a French name and a Londoner. Uninstall your browser and go back using Gopher and Archie.

Gunpowder was invented in China long ago and intended for recreational purpose only. The inventor could never envision its usage for anything else than making children happy, and uncivilised westerners use it today to maim them. Please return your firearms to the PRC. Do keep Charlton Heston.

Ships were invented in Greece to find a golden fleece. They were to be a means of transport and exploration, not military platforms. Please return the Nimitz to Athens.

The Latin alphabet was supposed to be used for Latin and derived languages exclusively. It was developed by legitimate scribes with Etrurian sublicenses, and never intended to be used by barbarians that cannot even write. ("write", for example, should be spelt "VRAJT"). Please send all your keyboards and typewriters back to Italy.

Bread was invended in Egypt as a tasty way of eating flour. It was never meant to be used in (bleargh) Big Macs. Send all your McDonalds to Cairo (though they will probably answer "thanks, but... let's just say like we took them, right?")

The Statue of Liberty was built in France to honour the values of Freedom, Equality and Fraternity, together with friendship between France and the US. It was not meant to symbolise a nation that claims to have saved France in the world wars (in the first the US entered only for one year, in the second they did not enter until attacked), calling the French "surrendering cheese-eating monkeys" (the "eating" remark, coming from an American, is really offensive) while never had a military occupation on their soil since the Brits left, and screwed all the statue was meant to represent by invading a defenseless country with bunches of black sticky liquid, and installing their puppet regime like Hapsburg Austria used to (ok, no sticky liquids back then). Unmount and shove it in a place the French will be all too happy to illustrate.

Cars were invented in Germany to visit the countryside in the weekend, not to be a penis supersizer. Please transfer of GM and Ford motor companies to Mannheim. Not sure whether they want the Humvees. Bikes go to Karlsruhe.

Circumcision was invented by people who had little water and lived in the desert. It was not meant as a way to prevent masturbation, and whoever thought for a second to cut a baby's willy because he might do "dirty things" with it in 15 years' time was a complete psycho. The idea was hygiene! Return to Israel your... oh never mind.

Re:mod parent down

[Senjutsu]

Because it's his Internet you want to alter. And mine, and lots of other peoples too.

Yeah, and shit, you'd almost think they all deserve a say in how it's run. And, come to think of it, most of them live outside the US, so what we need is some kind of international body in which representatives from everywhere can get together and hash things out. A group of nations, united....

Re:freedom?

[onepoint]

>> the Arabs "own" enough of math to send us all back to dark ages
>> Boolean logic

both are public domain

as for the englishman, he should have patent his Ideas