The Internet's Global Test

I suspect very few folks are aware that the “international community” is preparing a power grab of monumental significance—taking control of the internet’s root servers: Breaking America’s grip on the net. Britain’s al-Guardian rag thinks this is just groovy, of course.

Participating in the attempted coup: Brazil, China, Cuba, Iran, and several African states. Besides being bad examples of human rights and enablers of terrorism, what else do most of these areas have in common?

Answer: their management of the internet in their own countries is totalitarian, censorious, but worst of all, inept. Ninety percent of the world’s spam email originates from South America, China, or African countries.

In the early days, an enlightened Department of Commerce (DoC) pushed and funded expansion of the internet. And when it became global, it created a private company, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) to run it.

But the DoC retained overall control, and in June stated what many had always feared: that it would retain indefinite control of the internet’s foundation - its “root servers”, which act as the basic directory for the whole internet.

A number of countries represented in Geneva, including Brazil, China, Cuba, Iran and several African states, insisted the US give up control, but it refused. The meeting “was going nowhere”, Hendon says, and so the EU took a bold step and proposed two stark changes: a new forum that would decide public policy, and a “cooperation model” comprising governments that would be in overall charge.

Much to the distress of the US, the idea proved popular. Its representative hit back, stating that it “can’t in any way allow any changes” that went against the “historic role” of the US in controlling the top level of the internet.

But the refusal to budge only strengthened opposition, and now the world’s governments are expected to agree a deal to award themselves ultimate control. It will be officially raised at a UN summit of world leaders next month and, faced with international consensus, there is little the US government can do but acquiesce.

Get ready for more Spam...

Control of the DNS root servers has nothing whatever to do with the amount of spam that's sent. As a matter of interest the USA produces more spam than any other country in the world - 3 times more than the next most prolific country South Korea.

No doubt the US would happily relinquish control to a country with an impeccable record for democracy, neutrality, impartiality and human rights, such as Switzerland?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The Internet's Global Test

there is little the US government can do but acquiesce.

I doubt that somehow.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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It is broke. One country currently sets the rules. The others don't accept the authority of that country.

Don't you just hate when democracy works against you?

//rant on

Seems some countries think that the Americans and the Europeans are taking all the IP address and leaving them out of the web expansion. Obviously they haven't heard about IPV6 which would completely eliminate that problem for many, many years.

As for the EU, what's that all about. First a really insignicant issue with Microsoft and its' media player which doesn't restrict the many companies that make better ones both free and commercial products, hardly a monopoly. Now they are crying because they want more control in the world. I'm sure the US under no circumstances will release control with the real possibility of damaging the Internet infrastructure, which has been stable (barring those trying to make it otherwise) for several decades.

The only recourse that the EU and the other nations have are to create their own root server system and bring chaos to the Internet, or be isolated from the rest of the world.

//rant off

http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/d...cleId=171202023

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_nameserver

The only recourse that the EU and the other nations have are to create their own root server system and bring chaos to the Internet, or be isolated from the rest of the world.

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Errrrr..... so that's Europe, China, Africa and others (to start with), who would be isolated from the rest of the world, right? The "rest of the world" being the U.S., right?

I think The Onion had an article along those lines once.

I suspect very few folks are aware that the “international community” is preparing a power grab of monumental significance—taking control of the internet’s root servers: Breaking America’s grip on the net. Britain’s al-Guardian rag thinks this is just  groovy, of course.

Participating in the attempted coup: Brazil, China, Cuba, Iran, and several African states. Besides being bad examples of human rights and enablers of terrorism, what else do most of these areas have in common?

Answer: their management of the internet in their own countries is totalitarian, censorious, but worst of all, inept. Ninety percent of the world’s spam email originates from South America, China, or African countries.

YAY!!!

Most spam comes from the US... as does most brainwashing.

Can't wait

I suspect very few folks are aware that the “international community” is preparing a power grab of monumental significance—taking control of the internet’s root servers: Breaking America’s grip on the net. Britain’s al-Guardian rag thinks this is just  groovy, of course.

Participating in the attempted coup: Brazil, China, Cuba, Iran, and several African states. Besides being bad examples of human rights and enablers of terrorism, what else do most of these areas have in common?

Answer: their management of the internet in their own countries is totalitarian, censorious, but worst of all, inept. Ninety percent of the world’s spam email originates from South America, China, or African countries.

YAY!!!

Most spam comes from the US... as does most brainwashing.

Can't wait

Most americans come from there too

I suspect very few folks are aware that the “international community” is preparing a power grab of monumental significance—taking control of the internet’s root servers: Breaking America’s grip on the net. Britain’s al-Guardian rag thinks this is just  groovy, of course.

Participating in the attempted coup: Brazil, China, Cuba, Iran, and several African states. Besides being bad examples of human rights and enablers of terrorism, what else do most of these areas have in common?

Answer: their management of the internet in their own countries is totalitarian, censorious, but worst of all, inept. Ninety percent of the world’s spam email originates from South America, China, or African countries.

YAY!!!

Most spam comes from the US... as does most brainwashing.

Can't wait

Most americans come from there too

And Jazz, Rock, Blues, television, the internet, the airplane, vaccinations for most major diseases, windows, unix, apple macs, and many more things that people don't complain about.

cv

The only recourse that the EU and the other nations have are to create their own root server system and bring chaos to the Internet, or be isolated from the rest of the world.

Errrrr..... so that's Europe, China, Africa and others (to start with), who would be isolated from the rest of the world, right? The "rest of the world" being the U.S., right?

I think The Onion had an article along those lines once.

I should have clarified that a little better (was in rant mode at the time). It is highly unlikely that each of these group of countries could ever come up with a unified plan. The politics are so different. China would want its own, Africa its own, EU won't want either of these groups in control, etc.

Cdnvic,

Saying people don't complain about Windows is a bit of an overstatement

They do however keep using it

And eventhough Jazz originated in the US, the saxophone was invented in Belguim (Adolph Sax)...

And the omnipresent blacktop roads are a Scottish invention (Mr. McAdam), later on perfected to its current state by Belgian Edward de Smedt...

The dynamo was invented by Zénobe Gramme, from Belgium.

Most modern navigation still uses Mercator Maps, invented by Belgian Gerardus Mercator.

Bakelite, one of the most used resins in 60's home appliances was an invention of Leo Hendrik Baekeland, from Belgium.

Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir, from Belgium is generally accepted to have made the first internal combustion engines (about 500 Lenoir engines have been made), later on perfected by Mr Otto.

Mr Charles Van Depoele, born and educated in Belgium (but emigrated to the US age 23) invented and patented the first electric railway system. He sold this patent to Thomson-Houston Electric Company of Lynn, Massachusetts in 1888.

"De Humanis Corporis Fabrica" by Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), from what later on would become Belgium basically started modern medicine with this textbook about the human anatomy...

And this comes from a tiny country (population about 10 million), that most Americans would be unable to find on a map!

I'm just saying that the yank bashing is often flippant, and sounds like a broken record after awhile. True, they ask for it at times, yet it seems so many people love to mouth off about how bad the US is at the same time they watch American movies, buy their software, music, medicines, etc. I like to keep it in perspective.

I congratulate you on your patriotism and knowlage of your country. I still prefer our lagers though.

cv

quite right cdnvic - though you Canadians give the old US a fair bit of stick too

As for the EU, what's that all about...  Now they are crying because they want more control in the world.  I'm sure the US under no circumstances will release control with the real possibility of damaging the Internet infrastructure, which has been stable (barring those trying to make it otherwise) for several decades.

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The whole point in a nutshell. Well said.

Cdnvic,

Saying people don't complain about Windows is a bit of an overstatement 

They do however keep using it 

And eventhough Jazz originated in the US, the saxophone was invented in Belguim (Adolph Sax)...

And the omnipresent blacktop roads are a Scottish invention (Mr. McAdam), later on perfected to its current state by Belgian Edward de Smedt...

The dynamo was invented by Zénobe Gramme, from Belgium.

Most modern navigation still uses Mercator Maps, invented by Belgian Gerardus Mercator.

Bakelite, one of the most used resins in 60's home appliances was an invention of Leo Hendrik Baekeland, from Belgium.

Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir, from Belgium is generally accepted to have made the first internal combustion engines (about 500 Lenoir engines have been made), later on perfected by Mr Otto.

Mr Charles Van Depoele, born and educated in Belgium (but emigrated to the US age 23) invented and patented the first electric railway system. He sold this patent to Thomson-Houston Electric Company of Lynn, Massachusetts in 1888.

"De Humanis Corporis Fabrica" by Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), from what later on would become Belgium basically started modern medicine with this textbook about the human anatomy...

And this comes from a tiny country (population about 10 million), that most Americans would be unable to find on a map!

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It is my understanding that the american "french frie" is actually a Belgian invention. Is that true?

Supposedly the "french fry" is Belgian, although I'm not so sure myself since there are so many variations around the world...

Ough, Cdnvic, beers is actually something we're very proud of

Quite a few of them are popular in the states, I think Duvel, Hoegaerden and some of the abbey beers sell pretty good over there.

The Belgian company Interbrew has at least one Canadian company under their wings, thought it was Labatt, which brews some kind of Icebeer...

quite right cdnvic - though you Canadians give the old US a fair bit of stick too

We have oil, we can get away with it.

cv

television, the internet, the airplane, vaccinations for most major diseases, windows, unix, apple macs, and many more things that people don't complain about.

television ........britain

vaccinations ....britain

internet ...........britain

and

america was also invented by the brits.

america was also invented by the brits.

Yes, but fortunately we were able to repair the damage.

Yes, but fortunately we were able to repair the damage

last i heard , you were still trying !!

Yes, but fortunately we were able to repair the damage

last i heard , you were still trying !!

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To err is human, to truly &lt;deleted&gt; things up requires an Englishman.

cdnvic: your list was distinctly wrong on many points, which sort of proves my point about assumptions. But you're quite right. I do like American jazz, blues and also American 20th century literature. Although I watch many non-American movies, one of my favourites is Forrest Gump, which is about as proudly American as it gets. Credit where it's due.

I also listen to a lot of British music, read British literature, etc. That doesn't mean I would be happy to sit back and accept them as rulers of the world. Nor, it turns out, was the rest of the British empire. Now that the Brits no longer pretend to rule the world, they're rather likable. And I say that as an Irishman.

While I can understand that a country which happens to dominate a huge global resource through happenstance, might be reluctant to let it go, I'm baffled that they should feel they are entitled to it, and claim the entire rest of the planet is incompetent to control it. And to do so on an international forum, where Americans are in a minority??

To go back to the subject (not that I dislike some US bashing from time to time), the less that we can say is that even if Internet was set up by the US, it's now quite global. So transferring ICANN powers to a UN reated agency doesn't seem that stupid.

After all, ICANN has nothing to do with spam, censorship and so on, but deals with some issues that may need more multilateralism.

Stopping the .xxx project because it hurts the religious wing of the current US administration, is an exemple of why I would prefer a UN agency.

And Jazz, Rock, Blues, television, the internet, the airplane, vaccinations for most major diseases, windows, unix, apple macs, and many more things that people don't complain about.

cv

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well, some say that the first flight was by a Brasilian

some say TV was invented by a Scot

some say that most music comes from African roots

and the internet was English made

and there are lots more things people do complain about, whilst we are off topic

internet ...........britain

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Internet: America (Darpanet, predecessor of the internet)

World Wide Web: Britain (Tim Berners-Lee)

If Britain created the internet then how did those sneaky Americans steal it away with the end result being this topic?

Summary of events:

The first significant physical network of servers was put together in the '60s, with funding by the US dept of defence. This was in line with military thinking at the time, of trying to ensure continuing communications and logistics, in case one or several critical cities/bases were hit in a nuclear war. Similar patterns drove the current network of highways and to a lesser extent, railways. The actual computers already existed at US universities; the network cables were existing phone lines. It has been pointed out recently that the whole thing was basically a bunch of academics who thought the idea was cool, and realised they could get handouts from the ARPA agency in dept of defense, to pay them to work on their private project. It wasn't in any way a military project, and the fact that it matched military thinking was basically a coincidence.

The origin of using packet-switching in a large uncontrolled environment, which is really the most fundamental concept, is not clear to anyone. Four people were "involved", two Brits and two Americans. Conferences took place in both countries.

The first physical network was Arpanet, and this is the basis for the US claim to invention. It expanded quickly, and soon linked up with similar networks in other countries.

Oddly, no one had done much work on what and how those computers would communicate. One vital development to control the chaos, was the concept of IP in the early 70's. This is the bit that gives your connection a number to identify you to others, such as 203.144.143.6. In the past, everyone knew their IP, same as you used to know your own phone number.

Eventually protocols were developed for file transfer (this is FTP, which we still use e.g. to upload files onto websites) and logging in to remote computers (this later became telnet), email (yes, it has existed since early 70's), news (unheard of now, the origin of newsgroups. They're still there as a bizarre splinter if you have a newsreader, e.g. alt.soc.thai).

One really useful one was gopher, which was a general purporse search for help tool. You could go to gopher and look for help on any subject - as long as it was of interest to computer geeks. It was still very hard to find useful info on anything though.

In the early 80's, an American developed the modern DNS system. This meant that instead of each computer trying to keep an updated list of all the valid names of computers on the internet, only a few specialised ones do. They tell the others about any updates to the list. Those are domain registrars. Typically, each country keeps its own list under local laws. In the U.S. control of .com, .org etc was privatised and became Verisign. Later their monopoly was broken up, and other registrars were allowed; they then update the central list held at Verisign.

The point at stake in this thread is, Who lists all the world's registrars? In other words, who says .th = this-range-of-numbers? Currently, that is done by an American organization called ICANN. All new top level domains are approved by ICANN.

Also in the early 80's, the concept of hypertext became used in many ways. Hypertext is any normal text, where certain words are highlighted: clicking them brings you to somewhere else in the document, or perhaps another document.

In the late 80's, a British academic at CERN (huge European research group in Switzerland, famous for their particle accelerator and fusion reactor) saw that CERNs internet site had become so large that it was too difficult to use. He wrote the specifications for URL, http, and HTML, the first web browser, and the first webserver, and in 1991 published the first website, telling how one could get a browser and write a website etc.

To give you an idea of how fast it spread, one year later, as an undergrad in Manchester University, I wrote a website which I recall included a list of beers available at the local pub.