Why should the US control the internet?

[Thrillhouse]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9543452/

Apparently, inventing it and paying to develop it isn’t a good enough reason.

You folks wouldn’t mind paying an international tax to the UN to use the internet, would you? I mean, they do everything else so efficiently and without corruption…

[roycegracie47]

While the amount of non-US sites warrant enough for the EU to make it's claim, I think it's better of working in cooperation with the US as I can't see this going anywhere past bickering over who should get what and who get's left out, etc, when it comes down to full ownership of certain domains.

[James]

While the amount of non-US sites warrant enough for the EU to make it's claim, I think it's better of working in cooperation with the US as I can't see this going anywhere past bickering over who should get what and who get's left out, etc, when it comes down to full ownership of certain domains.
i agree i see it the same way

[Frndlefire]

Yea, I don't think the UN should own the internet...but I don't think anyone should really own the internet. It is by nature a sort of homogeneous mishmash of information. However, recently the gov't has declared a new "War on..." and this one is against pornography and since the internet is something like %80 pornography maybe we should be giving it up to those moralless europeans http://www.mscclan.com/forum/images/smilies/rolleyes.gifso as not to seem hypocritical. I mean, how can we say we want to exterminate porn and then turn around and say "no! we own it! It's ours!"

[blckout20]

I think it's rediculous for a country or group of countries to own the internet. The people who use the internet are/should be the people who control it.

[roycegracie47]

I think it's rediculous for a country or group of countries to own the internet. The people who use the internet are/should be the people who control it.
I dunno, there are some pretty swarthy individuals out here that I don't seem to trust...

Besides we do need a governing body to track down and oust things that shouldn't be on the internet such as kiddie porn, which would require a law enforcement agency, etc. However I don't think it should just be the US (althought the Dept. of 1337 haxxorz1111one1 would be an interesting federal agency dedicated to pwning all internet offenders). As I said however, there would be too much International bickering and I think the UN is too impotent to handle the job.

[enjoi]

This is the one case i want private companies to control the internet solely.

[zak]

But if private companies control internet, it would be like TLF. Theres still censorship for things that, argueably, shouldnt be censored. What if OmniInternet decided ok, we run 35% of the internet, how about we kick all the communists off our 35? Communist has no place on our internet. Or am i missing something>?

[enjoi]

But if private companies control internet, it would be like TLF. Theres still censorship for things that, argueably, shouldnt be censored. What if OmniInternet decided ok, we run 35% of the internet, how about we kick all the communists off our 35? Communist has no place on our internet. Or am i missing something>?
Well, considering the backbone of the internet is mostly at private universities and some private corporations... i'm not scared.

[laxrat22]

hey al gore invented the internet and he can take it back.

can anyone really own the internet anyways its not a tangible thing, do you guys get what i mean or am i not making anysense

[unta8]

Um, on a more important note, Why should paypal control the internet commerce scene. On SomethingAwful, a very reeputable seller of glass pipes for tobaccor usage, was recently shut down by paypal. I think it's bs personally.

[zak]

Arent there other paypal type services. True tho. they have a bit of a monopoly on deciding what gets sold on the internet. I wouldnt trust someone paypal shut down, for financial, not moral reasons.

[RockStar]

.......a very reeputable seller of glass pipes for tobaccor usage, was recently shut down by paypal......

Yes, I know a lot of tobacco pipe smokers who use a glass pipe.
:grin:

Paypal does not have a monopoly. No question paypal opens your business to more people, but that business is still free to take credit cards, money orders, wire transfers, or even yo mama's teeth if there's gold in 'em.

Paypal or no, they can still get paid. That's not a monopoly.

I think the bigger problem here is that too many people are worried about keeping other smokeable stuff illegal.

[KnightsLAXDad]

Well, considering the backbone of the internet is mostly at private universities and some private corporations... i'm not scared.

I don't think that article refers to the physical part of the internet, which you are quite right, is in the hands of numerous private/public companies, the backbone and access providers. It refers to the technology that makes it tick, namely domain names and IP addresses. Some entity has to administer these things, because without them company X or country Y cannot get on the net. The Euro concern is that if the administrators, in this case the US based organization, decides that they want to shut you out based on their own reasoning, they can. Since the internet has become so pervasive, and such a significant amount of commerce now depends on it, it cannot be controlled by any one single point of view. Billions, if not trillions of dollars of commerce could be affected at a whim

That's the easy part. The hard part is how to have an effective organization that can reasonably represent global interests. Good luck with that.....

[enjoi]

I don't think that article refers to the physical part of the internet, which you are quite right, is in the hands of numerous private/public companies, the backbone and access providers. It refers to the technology that makes it tick, namely domain names and IP addresses. Some entity has to administer these things, because without them company X or country Y cannot get on the net. The Euro concern is that if the administrators, in this case the US based organization, decides that they want to shut you out based on their own reasoning, they can. Since the internet has become so pervasive, and such a significant amount of commerce now depends on it, it cannot be controlled by any one single point of view. Billions, if not trillions of dollars of commerce could be affected at a whim

That's the easy part. The hard part is how to have an effective organization that can reasonably represent global interests. Good luck with that.....
So lets give it up to countries who don't even guarantee free speech in their own countries? C'mon give me a break.

[Thrillhouse]

1) Money; The United States invented the internet; both our citizens and everyone else in the world are charged for domain names. It’s a source of revenue for us. I don’t understand why a country should be expected to give up a source of revenue because everyone likes what we invented. By the way, if a country (like China) doesn’t like what we invented, they can always make their own internet. (Like China did.) Also, don’t think this international body will be satisfied with the income from domain names. If there is international control, there will be an international tax. Anyone who doesn’t think so is fooling themselves.
2) Control; If we were to give up control of the internet to a governing body of nations, those nations would have a say in what was acceptable and what is not. Right now, almost anything is allowed on the internet. Sure there are a few things like kiddie porn that we don’t think should be allowed anywhere, including the internet. If there is a country that thinks that kiddie porn shouldn’t be restricted, I’m not going to lose any sleep telling them they can’t use our internet. Most likely however, the problem won’t be countries arguing what should be on the internet, it will be on what shouldn’t be on the internet. The international community includes some countries that don’t have the same views as the United States when it comes to freedom of speech and they get a seat at the table.

There are issues with world use of the internet like international characters and porn domains. My personal opinion is if we want to do business with other countries, we should make the internet useful for them. As for .xxx; I think it would be great if all porn was in one place. It would make it really easy for parents to shield their kids from stuff they shouldn’t see; however we can’t force people from the regular domains to porn domains. If someone already has a porn site, we can force him to move. So .xxx would just become an extension of the online porn world, it wouldn’t keep porn off the rest of the internet. I don’t think online porn needs any help to grow and it’s certainly not an industry we need to cater to.

The internet is the greatest tool for the free flow of information and ideas ever created, and this free flow of information and ideas can be the catalyst for freedom around the world. When the rest of the world shares our ideals, we can talk. Until then; it’s our internet.

[KnightsLAXDad]

So lets give it up to countries who don't even guarantee free speech in their own countries? C'mon give me a break.


And therefore my last statement.....I didn't say it would be simple, nor effective. Case in point, the UN, G8 or WMF. All are supposed to represent global interests but most would argue they fail miserably at it.

My point is that no one interest should control something that could potentially derail the global economy. The internet has grown to be much more than chat rooms and websites.