UN Takeover of Internet Must Be Stopped, US Warns 454
benfrog writes "In a rare show of bipartisan agreement, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle warned this morning that a United Nations summit in December will lead to a virtual takeover of the Internet if proposals from China, Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are adopted. Called the World Conference on International Telecommunications, the summit would consider proposals including '[using] international mandates to charge certain Web destinations on a "per-click" basis to fund the build-out of broadband infrastructure across the globe' and allowing 'governments to monitor and restrict content or impose economic costs upon international data flows.' Concerns regarding the possible proposals were both aired at a congressional hearing this morning and drafted in a congressional resolution (PDF)."
Re:The US made it (Score:2, Informative)
Re:The US made it (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_protocol_suite
The Internet protocol suite resulted from research and development conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the early 1970s. After initiating the pioneering ARPANET in 1969, DARPA started work on a number of other data transmission technologies. In 1972, Robert E. Kahn joined the DARPA Information Processing Technology Office, where he worked on both satellite packet networks and ground-based radio packet networks, and recognized the value of being able to communicate across both. In the spring of 1973, Vinton Cerf, the developer of the existing ARPANET Network Control Program (NCP) protocol, joined Kahn to work on open-architecture interconnection models with the goal of designing the next protocol generation for the ARPANET.
By the summer of 1973, Kahn and Cerf had worked out a fundamental reformulation, where the differences between network protocols were hidden by using a common internetwork protocol, and, instead of the network being responsible for reliability, as in the ARPANET, the hosts became responsible. Cerf credits Hubert Zimmerman and Louis Pouzin, designer of the CYCLADES network, with important influences on this design.
The network's design included the recognition it should provide only the functions of efficiently transmitting and routing traffic between end nodes and that all other intelligence should be located at the edge of the network, in the end nodes. Using a simple design, it became possible to connect almost any network to the ARPANET, irrespective of their local characteristics, thereby solving Kahn's initial problem. One popular expression is that TCP/IP, the eventual product of Cerf and Kahn's work, will run over "two tin cans and a string."
A computer, called a router, is provided with an interface to each network. It forwards packets back and forth between them.[3] Originally a router was called gateway, but the term was changed to avoid confusion with other types of gateways.
Yes the United States did make the internet. You're welcome.
This is a complete fiction (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The US made it (Score:2, Informative)
The US did not make the Internet. Quoting from this history [nethistory.info],
Exactly - glad to see some actual data.
The original research that led to the internet was almost all done in Europe. Saying the "US made the internet" is like saying "the us invented the automobile". It's only seen as true to Americans raised to think the US did everything.
Captcha; elephant
Re:The US made it (Score:0, Informative)
Europe did jack squat towards forming the internet.
You've heard of a little thing called the world wide web, yes?
The thing you're using to post this?
Guess what - it came from CERN.... in case you don't know, that's in the EU.
Re:US not great, UN would be worse (Score:5, Informative)
The US has a very strict standard of what constitutes incitement to violence. It comes from the Supreme Court decision in Brandenburg v Ohio. To count as incitement, the speech has to meet three criteria:
1) It has to be intended to incite violence (the website meets this one)
2) The violence being incited must be "imminent" (this is the real killer, as written word is unlikely to be an incitement to any "imminent" action)
3) It has to be "likely" that violence will result (this could go either way... given the sort of crap you read on forums, the judge might rule that internet postings are often extreme and unlikely to be taken seriously)
As I said, the only way to pass the "Brandenburg test" is to basically be at the scene of the crime, pointing and yelling "Get 'em!"
Re:UN takeover must be stopped? (Score:4, Informative)
It wasn't a scare tactic. Have you SEEN the elections in Egypt? In case you weren't following, The Muslim Brotherhood WON (Under the moniker of the "Freedom and Justice Party"). Same thing is happening in Libya. Exactly as predicted.
Mubarak and Ghaddaffi may have both been totalitarian assholes, but at least they were CONTROLLABLE assholes that did what was necessary to keep Islamic extremists under control in their countries. Mubarak went out of his way to protect the minority Copts in his country. Not because he loved them, but because he feared international backlash if he didn't.
The Muslim Brotherhood has no such compunctions. They are driven by ideology, not statecraft. Expect the slaughter of the Copts, and the destruction of Egyptian historical monuments (as "offenses to Allah", like Bhuddhist monuments in Afghanistan, Jewish temple relics in Palestine, and ancient Christian churches in Turkey) to follow. This is what happens EVERY TIME that truly committed Muslims gain control of a country politically. it's happened before, it will happen again.