By Andy Sullivan and David Lawsky
The United States is headed for a showdown with much of the rest of
the world over control of the Internet but few expect a consensus to
emerge from a U.N. summit in Tunisia this week.
The very notion of "Internet governance" may seem an oxymoron to the
875 million users of the global computer network, which has proven
stubbornly resistant to the efforts of those who wish to rid it of
pornography, "spam" e-mail and other objectionable material.
But the United States, which gave birth to the Internet, maintains
control of the system that matches easy-to-remember domain names like
"reuters.com" with numerical addresses that computers can understand.
That worries countries like Brazil and Iran, which have pushed to
transfer control to the United Nations or some other international
body.
Even the European Union, where much of the business community backs the
current system, has taken swipes at the United States.
"We just say this needs to be addressed in a more cooperative way ... under
public-policy principles," said one EU official who asked not to be
identified. The official noted that, "having the United States controlling
_our_ web sites, with the ability to censor us or otherwise cut us
out is not acceptable."
The issue is expected to dominate the World Summit on the Information
Society, which begins Wednesday in Tunis, Tunisia.
Part diplomatic summit, part trade fair, the summit was launched two
years ago with a focus on bringing the Internet and other advanced
communications to less developed parts of the world.
That remains a hot topic for many of the 17,000 diplomats,
human-rights activists and technologists expected to attend.
High-tech heavyweights like Intel Corp. and Alcatel will send top
executives to talk up their development programs.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will unveil
a $100 laptop computer that can be powered by a hand crank in areas
without a reliable supply of electricity.
INTERNET 'PLUMBING'
But progress can't come without legal reform, business groups
say. Internet access in the developing world will always remain
expensive as long as governments allow their telecommunications
monopolies to discourage competition, said Allen Miller, a senior vice
president at the Information Technology Association of America.
"For most of these countries that are complaining about it, it's their
own regulation and lack of liberalization that's preventing backbone
providers from coming in," he said.
Over the past two years tension between the haves and have-nots has
shifted from the question of who has access to the Internet to who
controls its plumbing.
Diplomats were to meet on Sunday for a final round of negotiations
before the summit. They might agree to set up a forum to discuss
issues like cybercrime and spam, and countries might win more direct
control over their own top-level domains, such as .nl for the
Netherlands and .fr for France.
But the United States has said repeatedly it does not intend to cede
control of the domain-name system to a bureaucratic body that could
stifle innovation.
"No agreement is preferred to a bad agreement," U.S. Ambassador David
Gross said at a recent public meeting.
Many experts say the Internet needs less government involvement, not
more.
"When governments talk about imposing their public policies on the
Internet, unfortunately they don't typically mean, 'Let's protect
human rights, individual rights, let's guarantee the freedom of the
Internet,"' said Milton Mueller, a professor at Syracuse University's
School of Information Studies.
"They mean, 'Damn it, somebody using the Internet did something I
don't like and let's find a way to stop it,"' he said, "and the same
thing is true of many elements in the United States as well."
Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.
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Andy Sullivan (reuters@telecom-digest.org)