US, EU set for showdown over control of the Internet

[Inbred Chocobo]

I don't think that any power should be switched around or whatnot. The US has done a good job in keeping it running, and anything I see the UN sticking its nose in just kinds of slows it down. All they will do is muck around in stuff they don't belong in.

And I think there is one thing that comes with the title of Owner of the Internet. And that would be taxes. Imagine it, if the EU is the 'owner' of the internet, then whats stopping them from taxing other countries for the internet? Or what if it takes a step further? What if the UN starts to demand taxes on the internet? I know that basically from the start the UN has been broke, and about the only international thing out that seems taxable is the internet.

You know what really scares me? United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, thats what. Check specifically Article 29, paragraph 3. Read it closely, if your confused on what its saying, it basically means that any right that the UN 'claims' that gets in its way can be taken away.

Yes yes, I know your also saying that this is to give some control to the EU, and your probably confused on why everyone is bringing up issues involving the UN. Well think of it as a pebble in the snow on the top of a mountain. Yes true, the pebble is so small that no one thinks anything about it, so no one tries to stop it. It starts rolling, gathering snow and starts building. Soon it becomes bigger, and bigger and bigger. Suddenly it becomes a giant boulder, come crashing into a wall or something, causing massive problems.

What this means is that the pebble is what is going on now. What do you think the UN is going to do with the internet in say 5 or 10 years down the line if this goes through? You think they will be happy with what is happening to it sitll? They will want to do something else, maybe give everyone a small peice of control. Then someone is going to have to centralize that control, and of course the UN is going to look good to all those countries for just so nicely handing control to everyone. Then what? Well I really would prefer just to catch the pebble rather than let it build up and see what happens then.

[DarthZeth]

those of you who follow Slashdot will know that the EU says internet could fall apart

This is more a diplomat warning of a possible future more then an open threat, but what he proposes could happen is just what I said: countries build their own root servers. And if they REALLY wanted to fuck their countries over, they’d make it illegal to connect to the ICANN root servers!