EU Passes Resolution Against ITU Asserting Control Over Internet

An anonymous reader writes "Today, the European Parliament passed a resolution that condemns the upcoming attempt from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to assert control over the Internet, and instructed its 27 Member States to act accordingly. This follows an attempt from the ITU to assert itself as the governing body and control the Internet. From the article: 'The resolution, which was passed with a large majority, included Members of European Parliament (MEPs) from all major party groups, and the Pirate Party’s Amelia Andersdotter had been playing a central role in its drafting, together with MEPs Marietje Schaake and Judith Sargentini from the Netherlands, Sabine Verheyen and Petra Kammerevert from Germany, Ivailo Kalfin from Bulgaria, and Catherine Trautmann from France.'"

Re:What's the catch?

[jarkus4]

its not really legislation as it has no binding power whatsoever. Its pretty much "Hey, we dont like this idea" shout from them.

Laughable

[Anonymous Coward]

Today, the European Parliament passed a resolution that condemns the upcoming attempt from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to assert control over the Internet, and instructed its 27 Member States to act accordingly

The EU Parliament can instruct whatever it likes but it has no power over the member states. It might as well instruct all other world governments to agree as well, instruct the ITU to change track and instruct the weather to improve.

The most an instruction from the EU parliament to nationals governments can achieve is to raise enough outrage from nationalists that they take the opposite stand. In practice though nobody's likely to do more than roll their eyes at them.

Re:Ouch... That has to sting.

[renoX]

> I don't think that anything in their resolution suggests that "the yanks" have or should have any special role in internet regulation.

Well, that's the current situation, so that's implicitly the result..

Re:Proud to be European

[SplashMyBandit]

Commissioner Nellie Kroes is particularly good and has stood up for the rights of users (against pressure from Big Business). Let's recognize and applaud the people that are on 'our' side (I'm from New Zealand, and the decisions she makes as EU Commissioner on digital rights influence countries around the World):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neelie_Kroes [wikipedia.org]

Re:This is good thing, right?

[tehcyder]

Individualistic is just a nicey-nice way of saying selfish. The roots of conservatism lie in the proppping up of existing power structures, whether they're religious, economic or political.

So-called libertarians who say they are "fiscally conservative but socially liberal" are, in plain English, conservative.

By deifying freedom of the individual to do as they wish above everything else, you are simply ensuring that those in power continue to do what they want while living like parasites on the body of society as a whole.

"Deregulation and austerity" are indeed libertarian, which is to say conservative, as they sit the agenda of those in power perfectly. It is sad that all you rugged American individualists are so blind to this obvious truth.

Re:Yeah right

[lordholm]

To be frank, after having travelled with railways in many places. I must say that the Dutch railways are probably the best working ones on the entire continent (except for when it is snowing).

Re:Ouch... That has to sting.

[TheRaven64]

No, that's not the case. What the rest of the world wanted the ITU to do was create a framework for decentralised control of the infrastructure that the US nominally controls, and in particular stop ICANN from doing its current TLD-whoring. What ITU proposed instead was to create an international framework for censoring the Internet.

Re:Yeah right

[sosume]

'a VVD whore who sells voters to big business everytime she gets the chance'
[citation needed]

Looks like someone didn't vote for one of the current government coalition parties and is now grumpy!

Re:Yeah right

[captainpanic]

The Dutch railroads are among the best in the world, with huge double-decker passenger trains between major cities with the frequency that some large cities don't even get on their metro lines. The cost of a ticket on Dutch trains is significantly lower than on the French or UK trains, and they are easier to get (from the machines), without the need of a stupid reservation. Even if a train is delayed, this delay is mostly measured in mere minutes. Only real accidents or failures will result on longer delays. And snow. Snow f***s everything up, because the Dutch don't invest enough to avoid that. But this is a sensible choice, not a failure. It just happens that it snowed in the last 2 years.

I never understand why the Dutch complain so much about their train system. I guess this is just because they never take the trains abroad.

The VVD may be wrong on many things, but they haven't messed up the trains.