U.S.A. ownz the internetz
 

haha the u.s.a. has halted plans to help share the internet with the world and continues its plan of keeping everything in american hands...

If you though .xxx was a problem , just wait..

Countries are going to begin their own internets now..


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FRANKFURT, Germany - A unilateral decision by the United States to indefinitely retain oversight of the Internet's main traffic-directing computers prompted concerns Friday that the global telecommunications network could eventually splinter.


"This seems like an extension of American security in the aftermath of 9-11," said John Strand, a Denmark-based technology consultant. "People will ask: `Do the Americans want to control the Internet?'"

Washington's decision, announced Thursday, departs from previously stated U.S. policy.

Many countries favor gradually releasing oversight of the Internet's so-called "root servers" to an international body, and a showdown on the issue could come in November at a U.N. information society summit to be held in Tunisia. A U.N. report this month on Internet governance is expected to address the issue.

Michael D. Gallagher, an assistant secretary at the U.S. Commerce Department, said in announcing the policy shift Thursday that it was a response to growing security threats and increased reliance on the Internet globally for communications and commerce.

But the explanation did little to allay fears that the United States is overstepping its boundaries and locking its grip on the Internet, which as history's most powerful communications tool lets people do everything from sell secondhand shoes to promote Jihad or criticize authoritarian regimes.

Patrik Linden, a spokesman for the foundation that runs the Swedish national domain .se, called the U.S. announcement "rather confrontational" but said the move was what a lot of Internet experts thought Washington had always intended.

A Japanese government official said the declaration was sure to provoke debate.

"When the Internet is being increasingly utilized for private use, by businesses and so forth, there is a societal debate about whether it's befitting to have one country maintaining checks on that," said Masahiko Fujimoto of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' data communications division.

The "root servers" in question ? 13 computers located mostly in the United States ? are the Internet's master directories. They tell Web browsers and e-mail programs how to direct traffic, and Internet users the world over interact with them every day, though most without knowing it.

Robert Shaw, an policy adviser with the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union, said he understood the basis for the U.S. decision: Root servers and other address-resolving computers lower down the traffic-management chain are vital and merit protecting just as much as cities, water supplies and highways.

"Many governments are legitimately concerned that another country has ultimate control of basically their communications infrastructure," he said. Some countries have pressed to move oversight of the root servers to an international body such as the ITU, a United Nations group.

Though physically in private hands, the root servers contain government-approved lists of the 260 or so Internet suffixes, such as ".com," ".net" and country designators like ".fr" for France or ".no" for Norway.

In 1998, the Commerce Department selected a private organization with international board members, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, to decide what goes on those lists.

But Thursday's declaration means the department will keep control over that process rather than ceding it to ICANN as originally intended, though the United States said ICANN would retain day-to-day operational control.

Naji Haddad, a Lebanese owner of a Web business, believes the U.S. decision will splinter the Internet.

"The announcement will definitely drive countries and organizations toward creating private solutions similar to what is currently offered by New.net and Walid.com (alternative naming systems), which will result in fracturing the global Internet into several networks," Haddad said.

In a worst-case scenario, countries refusing to accept U.S. control could establish their own separate versions of the Domain Name System, thereby making addresses in some regions unreachable in others.

The U.S. government has historically played the role of overseer because it funded much of the Internet's early development. And while it is not known to have interfered in any major sense with traffic-routing affecting other countries, that does not ease concerns that such interference could occur.

"It's not going to work in the long run to have the USA deciding everything by themselves," said Patrik Faltstrom, one of Sweden's foremost Internet experts.

pay close attention to this part

"The announcement will definitely drive countries and organizations toward creating private solutions similar to what is currently offered by New.net and Walid.com (alternative naming systems), which will result in fracturing the global Internet into several networks," Haddad said.

Will never happen.

its not good news..........I saw it elsewhere as well :(

I wonder what Al Gore has to say about this.

ADG Webmaster

oh god! the stupidity! it hurts! it HURTS!

WTF is going on in the USA?
Ultra faced paced regression?

Why is anyone surprised? The US always approaches the internet in legal matters as if it is exclusive to us.

can't wait for the first world wide internet war

So what if they own it - they always have - you got a suggestion on which country should pay for it other than them - since they did kinda build the damn thing

Everyone else always bitching, saying the US should stay the hell out of everything and keep their opinions and their culture and everything to themselves. Then when there's the something the US designed and built, that they like, they want it all open and free for their use as they see fit.

MADE IN THE U.S.A. :thumbsup

Why would they give up control of this network in the first place? They have nothing at all to gain from that...

Exactly - just because other countries telephone companies tied into the cables ( in some rare cases actually paid for some of the cables) they think that now everything is open and free - somebody had to pay for it and I can tell you who didnt - anyone outside the US

:pimp won't start :)

good point, the Chinese invented the gunpoweder, I think the USA should pay them a small fee for every shot that has been fired on US soil since then

Somehow I always read MADE IN JAPAN :disgust

We make our own gunpowder, just like they can make their own networks. They're not asking for the technology to do it, they have it already, they're asking for a say in the control of something that is, and always has been, on US soil. Fuck them.

My thoughts:

Controlling the current root servers isn't the same as owning the internet.

They have control over how we currently know the internet DNS system, but if the gov ever decided to do something drastic like banning free speech, it would splinter the internet and give everyone (including Americans) an incentive to use some different system of DNS to participate in free speech.

Seems to me it's mostly symbolic control, because if they ever try to exercise their control in a negative way, people will simply sidestep the current DNS system in favor of one without those government controls.

Seems to me the gov is in a precarious position with their control, if they ever try to use that control in a negative way, they risk losing that control completely. So it's basically symbolic control, like the Queen of England.

What do you think? Yes? No?

When they came for you there was no one left to speak up.

I understand protecting the servers with the best software, and people that money can buy. But ( I ) feel that this is one more attempt by the Bush admin. to take over, and keep the classes seperate.

" You can't stand to see a hahahahahaha get as rich as you! "

Don't get me wrong, I'm not 100% happy with this latest announcement, but I can't think of any other organization to give control to. I don't fully trust the US gov or ICANN or the UN to keep the net free and open either.

The idea that the US gov would probably lose its control if it ever tried to exercise that control negatively is ironically comforting.

Welcome to yesterday...

Aren't steps towards IPV6 almost circumventing current root servers?
And I just read that the US government themselves are mandating that many of their services implement IPV6 in the next few years...

it might happen but it won't amount 2 shit.

ipv6 died long ago. unless you want super cool awesome rad vhosts on irc its worthless

I know, I read about it awhile ago.. Think it was in Info. Week

It did?

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0605/062905tdpm2.htm

big difference between forcing government intranets to use ipv6 and converting the entire internet to it.

So because IPv6 is growing slowly means that it's dead?

no, ivp6 hasnt moved an inch in almost a decade. if you think the governments sudden support of it will lead to a new system without government control you're crazy. in june 2008, something new will be out to support the ever growing internet and ipv6 will be obsolete. ipv4 is the standard thus far, and a complete overhaul to v6 isnt feasible.

ipv6 is making lots of progress in Europe and Asia....
not making many advances in the USA however...
part of the reason I'm wondering about the whole root server issue...

thats right the internet is property of the US :1orglaugh

I've read that the entire Japan backbone supports IPv6

Also, ICANN added IPv6 to the root servers

No it's Russias.

ICANNS's recent thoughts on this issue

http://icann.org/announcements/ICANN...nt-14jun05.pdf

3 words that the world is saying non stop in the past 6 years : Stupid fucking americans

Plan on it for at least 8 more years when the religious right motivates to defeat Hillary. :2 cents:

I think I said they owned the root servers - not the internet - the internet isnt a physical object

That's like the UN saying they want control over our highways because people come from Europe and drive on them. For once, I don't think the US is over stepping it's bounds. It did the world a huge fucking favor by making the internet public, because remember, it was originally intended to be an intranet for the US government and no one else. They voluntarily opened it to the public and all of a sudden because so many people rely on it for day-to-day life they're not supposed to have any claim on it?

Website defacing of government websites is pretty common now.

And this is always been my point, if your offshore and you think you are safe from US laws on Pornography THINK AGAIN. If The government wants to prosecute you here fore pushing adult material to US citizens then they can just seize your .com then where the hell are you ?

ok you can keep internet, but europe will keep WWW

1991 - Tim Berners-Lee at CERN releases World-Wide Web (WWW)

i hope you realize how all of this sounds stupid?

That's why I ask surfers to bookmark my .ca domain...

This just supports my theory of an eventual internet segregation. It's not going to be the WORLD wide web forever.

You'll have US, Canada, Australia, etc... on one, Russia and Eastern Europe on another, the middle east on another, etc... Commie countries would be limited to their own in-country material.

I have often wodnered why CHina has not just gone with it own DNS system...

Horse shit. If Russians were segregated they'd lose half of the countries income because there would be nobody left to spam.

the US will be drafting computer geeks to invade foreign pc's

they are so damn powerful.