Governance
11 May 2012
Netherlands becomes world's second "net neutrality" country Ars Technica
A year ago, the former Dutch telecoms monopolist KPN unveiled a plan to make mobile users pay extra for data used by certain third-party apps, such as WhatsApp and Skype, that replaced KPN services like text messaging and voice calls. In response, the Dutch parliament quickly added net neutrality provisions to its telecommunications law. Tuesday, the Dutch senate at last approved the law, making the Netherlands the second country in the world (after Chile) with net neutrality written into statute.
09 May 2012
Keeping the Internet Neutral New York Times
Imagine a network of private highways that reserved a special lane for Fords to zip through, unencumbered by all the other brands of cars trundling along the clogged, shared lanes. Think of the prices Ford could charge. Think of what would happen to innovation when building the best car mattered less than cutting a deal with the highway's owners.
07 May 2012
U.N. efforts put Internet freedom at risk Politico
A mounting effort to transform a United Nations agency into a global Internet regulator is threatening to undo decades of policymaking that helped the Internet evolve into the open, global medium we all depend on.
Ensuring an Open Internet by Lawrence Strickling, Philip Verveer and Daniel Weitzner White House
Central to the Internet's value as a platform for innovation, democracy, access to information and scientific progress are the technical standards on which it is built and the open manner in which it is governed. Yet, there are governments that seek to alter the fundamental way the Internet functions. Several governments recently called for new treaty provisions to assert centralized control over the Internet's operations instead of relying on the voluntary, consensus-based processes that gave us the Internet we enjoy today.
03 May 2012
Internet Freedom Starts at Home: The United States needs to practice what it preaches online by Rebecca Mackinnon Foreign Policy
"An electronic curtain has fallen around Iran," U.S. President Barack Obama warned in a recent video message marking the Persian New Year. Government censorship and surveillance, he said, make it more difficult for Iranians to "access the information that they want," denying "the rest of the world the benefit of interacting with the Iranian people."
29 April 2012
MacKinnon's Consent of the Networked: A call for political innovation by Milton Mueller Internet Governance Project
The best summary of Rebecca MacKinnon's book Consent of the Networked is its subtitle: "The worldwide struggle for Internet freedom." This is a comprehensive, spirited, and rich journalistic account of the way the use of the Internet and its supply industries intersect with classic civil and political rights.
Global Internet Governance: From Multistakeholder To Autopilot IP-Watch
In recent decades, far-reaching international cooperation has led to the development of global multistakeholder governance of the internet. While efforts to further enhance cooperative mechanisms are ongoing, one business leader with an inside track suggests that in a couple of decades, the internet will be governing itself.
27 April 2012
U.S. House passes CISPA cyber bill despite veto threat Reuters
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a cybersecurity bill on Thursday that would allow the government and companies to share information about hacking, but which has raised privacy concerns and a veto threat from the White House.
26 April 2012
The U.N., Internet Regulator? Private governance has the flexibility and competence needed to keep the Internet dynamic and free Wall Street Journal
Mayan prophecy predicts that the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012, but Internet users should be more worried about what will happen just a few weeks before. The World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) meets in Dubai Dec. 3-14 to consider proposals that would grant authority for Internet governance to the United Nations and impose new regulations on Web traffic. If adopted, these proposals could upend the Web as we know it, undermining it as an engine for growth and dynamism for the world.
Vint Cerf: We Knew What We Were Unleashing on the World Wired
Vint Cerf invented the protocol that rules them all: TCP/IP. Most people have never heard of it. But it describes the fundamental architecture of the internet, and it made possible Wi-Fi, Ethernet, LANs, the World Wide Web, e-mail, FTP, 3G/4G -- as well as all of the inventions built upon those inventions.
21 April 2012
Conceptualising accountability and recourse - 2011 - Internet rights and democratisation Association for Progressive Communications
Introduction: The modern foundations of international human rights rest on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the Charter of the United Nations (UN). [The United Nations officially came into existence after ratification of the Charter on 24 October 1945. ] The UDHR affirmed human rights are universal, inalienable and interconnected. The human rights framework recognises both the right of states to govern and the duty of states to respect, protect and promote human rights.
11 April 2012
Clinton Says Asia Needs U.S. Leadership Bloomberg
... Clinton acknowledged tensions with China, citing "cyber intrusions" that include the online theft of American intellectual property, and called for setting clear Internet governance policies with Beijing. She dismissed regional misgivings that talk of American leadership is code for protecting Western prerogatives.
05 April 2012
Concerns spread as U.N. poises for Internet regulation Politico
Faced with the prospect of United Nations regulation of the Internet, the United States has yet to appoint a leader for an upcoming battle with other countries over Web management.
28 March 2012
US Politicians Raise Fears Of UN Internet Regulation Tech Daily Dose
Will the United Nations try to regulate the Internet? At least two members of Congress think that's a possibility.
Internet traffic jams: how to avoid them Engineering and Technology Magazine
The system of Internet highways and byways is being reconfigured to cope with the size and shape of traffic heading over it, while Internet companies are dreaming up fresh approaches to avoid.
27 March 2012
Council of Europe puts users' rights at heart of Internet Council of Europe
The 47 Council of Europe member states have adopted an Internet governance strategy to protect and promote human rights, the rule of law and democracy online.
16 March 2012
The corporate titans take on the Internet: the fight over copyright is not a struggle between capital and labour, but one between different factions of capital by Peter Frase Al Jazeera
American politics is riven by an increasingly contentious debate over the status of intellectual property, especially copyright. On one side are those who argue that tougher enforcement of IP is desperately needed to protect the rights of creators, promote innovation, preserve jobs, and ensure economic growth. Opposing them are those who argue that the draconian enforcement of intellectual property rights will only curtail free speech and stifle economic activity, while entrenching the profits of a small class of digital-age rentiers.
10 March 2012
UN's ITU Could Become Next Internet Freedom Threat, Edward J. Black, President and CEO, Computer and Communications Industry Association Huffington Post
Internet freedom is again under fire for ostensibly noble reasons. After a narrow escape from Congress's SOPA legislation, Internet freedom is in the international crosshairs of a large group of nations, including many of the world's most undemocratic governments, seeking to give themselves control over Internet policy. Their target is the creation of new international legal rules that would allow them to legitimately impose censorship and monitor users' online activities.
04 March 2012
Google's Schmidt: Don't Let the United Nations Rule the Internet Forbes
Google's Eric Schmidt is warning against a United Nations proposal to give regulation of the Internet to International Telecommunications Union.
Internet Society Delivers Statement at the 19th Session of the Human Rights Council ISOC
Speaking this week at the Human Rights Council panel on the right to freedom of expression on the Internet, Markus Kummer, Internet Society Vice President for Public Policy, emphasized the importance of a multistakeholder dialogue to further this objective. In the Internet Society's first statement in the Human Rights Council, Kummer emphasized that the same standards should be applied to both the online and offline worlds.
01 March 2012
Schmidt: UN treaty a 'disaster' for the internet ZDNet
Internet freedom and innovation are at risk of being stifled by a new United Nations treaty that aims to bring in more regulation, Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt has warned.
29 February 2012
Nations must step up to set global rules for Internet governance, conference told Ottawa Citizen
While they couldn't agree on how it should be done, all of the speakers at Monday's 2012 Canadian Internet Forum agreed that government needs to take a more active role in Internet governance.
Is the web closing? Continued entrepreneurship - such as AOL in the 1990s - always threatens to restrict the internet, but never does by Esther Dyson Project Syndicate
Within the tech community, there is much angst about whether the web is about to be "closed". Will it be controlled by companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google, or will it remain "open" to all? Will individuals be able to reach any content they choose? Will developers be able to serve users on any platform?
23 February 2012
FCC Commissioner Warns Against U.N. Control of Internet Slate
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell penned a warning about the potential for greater U.N. control over the Internet in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Tuesday.
22 February 2012
The U.N. Threat to Internet Freedom: Top-down, international regulation is antithetical to the Net, which has flourished under its current governance model Wall Street Journal
On Feb. 27, a diplomatic process will begin in Geneva that could result in a new treaty giving the United Nations unprecedented powers over the Internet. Dozens of countries, including Russia and China, are pushing hard to reach this goal by year's end. As Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said last June, his goal and that of his allies is to establish "international control over the Internet" through the International Telecommunication Union, a treaty-based organization under U.N. auspices.
