US House to ITU: Hands off the Internet

Sat Aug 4 20:01:24 UTC 2012

On Aug 4, 2012, at 1:29 PM, Nick Hilliard <nick at foobar.org> wrote:

> On 04/08/2012 16:55, Justin M. Streiner wrote:
>> On Sat, 4 Aug 2012, Jimmy Hess wrote:
>>>> "it is the "consistent and unequivocal policy of the United States to
>>>> promote a global Internet free from government control."
>>> 
>>> Now if they would only practice what they preach.....
>> 
>> It will be interesting to see how that statement gets (ab)used the next
>> time net neutrality, or legislation like SOPA/PIPA becomes a hot topic.
> 
> I suspect they meant "a global Internet free from _other_ government control".

Actually, it is very likely that they truly mean "free of any government 
control", with the confusion coming from the idea that enforcing existing 
laws over the Internet (like copyright protection) isn't controlling the
Internet but just routine law enforcement.

Obviously, it is equally possible to view enforcing copyright protection as 
a form of Internet control and/or form of Internet censorship, so stating 
that governments shouldn't be controlling or censoring the Internet and then 
taking down hundreds of domain names is certainly going to cause confusion,
if even the USG offers it as a perfectly logical and self-consistent position.

FYI,
/John

Disclaimer: My views alone.  Your mileage may vary.