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How long should we, the non-US citizen rest of the world, sit back and look at the country battling internal political demons while attacking the Internet every

How long should we, the non-US citizen rest of the world, sit back and look at the country battling internal political demons while attacking the Internet every other week with a new law proposal? I'm not very big on politics, as far as I'm concerned every official, elected or not, of every country in the world is a useless nuisance (some would call them a necessary evil, that's up for debate). On the other hand, I'm very attached to the Internet. I really hope we'd find a way to take this cyberspace out of any political jursdiction; utlimately, what I care about is being able to say and read whatever I want off the internet. Politicians and corporations won't care for that no matter who they are. All they care is for power and money. And in that aspect the Internet is a goldmine.

Freestyler_3 15y ago
I agree, are we going to hear this every month/week? Are they hoping that eventually the big crowd will just give up because its too much work fighting the government with their own rules. And why? Because companies think that this is the medicine to their failing. Government wants the power they shouldn't have...what's new with that? If China did it so can they right?
- seanp2k2 15y ago
  You were maybe joking with the China bit, but MPAA Grand Poobah Chris Dodd has seriously made the that exact argument http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111208/14521817014/mpaa-boss-if-chinese-censor-internet-without-problem-why-cant-us.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111208/14521817014/mpaa-b...
seanp2k2 15y ago
We need an alternative DNS root zone that is controlled by something like NATO (but for Internet interoperability.) http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_DNS_root http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_DNS_root This would democratize the Internet an take lots of control away from the US
- davidw 15y ago
  Or... the United Nations, so that countries like Russia and China would get more of a say in how things are run? Oh... hrm....
  - babarock 15y ago
    Oh no, not Russia! not China! my government/media/neighbor told me they're Evil. Let's keep the control to people like Lamar Smith. At least he's <insert bogus excuse with big words like "freedom" or "free speech">
    - davidw 15y ago
      You can observe and read about how the Russians and Chinese behave yourself, no? The great firewall? Syria? Putin's gradual takeover of Russia? The US has plenty of defects, but is not really in the same league. Now, that's no excuse at all to not demand better behavior from US politicians, but it is pointing out that "international control" over the internet is no panacea.
  - pooriaazimi 15y ago
    UN would be a better idea. And while we're at it, let's remove/cancel(? - what's the right word?) the `veto` right too, so that no country can `veto` the decisions made by the whole world (attacking Iraq, Saving a murderous regime like Syria, etc.)
- EvilTerran 15y ago
  Would it be possible to completely do away with centralised DNS roots? Some kind of peer-to-peer name resolution system might be viable, theoretically at least... It would be asking for (at least an initial period of) anarchy, mind. Perhaps doing away with the "one name, one website" paradigm of DNS altogether and using something like http://yacy.net http://yacy.net to find the relevant IP address for the site you want could work...
  - throwaway64 15y ago
bdunbar 15y ago
I really hope we'd find a way to take this cyberspace out of any political jursdiction; I don't think it can be done. Because, getting right down to it, the internet lives on wires and computers that have a physical presence. You can't abstract those away and say 'Dear State: those computers, in that building ... none of your business.'
camiller 15y ago
as far as I'm concerned every official, elected or not, of every country in the world is a useless nuisance (some would call them a necessary evil, that's up for debate). I'll split the difference with you, they are useless evil.

Freestyler_3 15y ago

I agree, are we going to hear this every month/week? Are they hoping that eventually the big crowd will just give up because its too much work fighting the government with their own rules. And why? Because companies think that this is the medicine to their failing. Government wants the power they shouldn't have...what's new with that? If China did it so can they right?

seanp2k2 15y ago
You were maybe joking with the China bit, but MPAA Grand Poobah Chris Dodd has seriously made the that exact argument http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111208/14521817014/mpaa-boss-if-chinese-censor-internet-without-problem-why-cant-us.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111208/14521817014/mpaa-b...

seanp2k2 15y ago

We need an alternative DNS root zone that is controlled by something like NATO (but for Internet interoperability.) http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_DNS_root http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_DNS_root This would democratize the Internet an take lots of control away from the US

davidw 15y ago
Or... the United Nations, so that countries like Russia and China would get more of a say in how things are run? Oh... hrm....
- babarock 15y ago
  Oh no, not Russia! not China! my government/media/neighbor told me they're Evil. Let's keep the control to people like Lamar Smith. At least he's <insert bogus excuse with big words like "freedom" or "free speech">
  - davidw 15y ago
    You can observe and read about how the Russians and Chinese behave yourself, no? The great firewall? Syria? Putin's gradual takeover of Russia? The US has plenty of defects, but is not really in the same league. Now, that's no excuse at all to not demand better behavior from US politicians, but it is pointing out that "international control" over the internet is no panacea.
- pooriaazimi 15y ago
  UN would be a better idea. And while we're at it, let's remove/cancel(? - what's the right word?) the `veto` right too, so that no country can `veto` the decisions made by the whole world (attacking Iraq, Saving a murderous regime like Syria, etc.)
EvilTerran 15y ago
Would it be possible to completely do away with centralised DNS roots? Some kind of peer-to-peer name resolution system might be viable, theoretically at least... It would be asking for (at least an initial period of) anarchy, mind. Perhaps doing away with the "one name, one website" paradigm of DNS altogether and using something like http://yacy.net http://yacy.net to find the relevant IP address for the site you want could work...
- throwaway64 15y ago

bdunbar 15y ago

I really hope we'd find a way to take this cyberspace out of any political jursdiction; I don't think it can be done. Because, getting right down to it, the internet lives on wires and computers that have a physical presence. You can't abstract those away and say 'Dear State: those computers, in that building ... none of your business.'

camiller 15y ago

as far as I'm concerned every official, elected or not, of every country in the world is a useless nuisance (some would call them a necessary evil, that's up for debate). I'll split the difference with you, they are useless evil.