Re Question. Re Today is a remarkable day for the Internet!

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dave Burstein <daveb () dslprime com>
> Date: October 2, 2016 at 5:00:13 AM EDT
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Cc: ip <ip () listbox com>
> Subject: Re: [IP] Question. Re Today is a remarkable day for the Internet!
>
> ​Dave - If the thread is too long, skip this since I already had a say. I wrote most of this before I saw you picked 
> up my other comment.​
>
> ​​
> > On Sat, Oct 1, 2016 at 9:17 PM, Dave Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:
> > Can someone point to problems that giving control to non-US entities will solve? 
> ​
> Yes. Perlman is right that very few practical things will change. ICANN Chair Steve Crocker makes the same point.
>
> ​Before I get too many flames, let me say I support the ICANN transition. I titled my writeup ​Ted Cruz is a bleeping 
> idiot,​ http://bit.ly/2dxyZPz ​ ​Unfortunately, both sides treated this like a political campaign. We all know about 
> politicians and truth.​
>
> The battle over ICANN was a symbolic fight between the Global North (led by the U.S.) and the Global South (BRICS and 
> more.) The "problem" the ICANN transition is meant to solve is the demand by the majority of countries in the world 
> to have a representative say in decisions about the Internet. 
>
> The Global South generally believes the system is rigged to protect things like high transit prices and unreasonable 
> patent royalties. Many of their issues are on target, although ICANN itself has almost nothing to do with them. 
> Despite the irrelevance, both sides choose ICANN and the ITU as the battleground. 
>
> For example, NTIA head Larry Strickling, the U.S. guy in charge, explained the problem to me, "Dave, do you want 
> Russia and China to run the Internet?" (We were at the WCIT and I had asked him why he was fighting so hard on issues 
> that were trivial.) The Indians, Brazilians, Africans, Chinese, and Russians also thought fairly trivial issues, like 
> ICANN, worth fighting for. 
>
> The vote at the WCIT was two to one against the U.S. and European control. So we said "It's our Internet" and walked 
> out. Strickling, a smart guy, realized the U.S. needed to make some concessions. The Global South is now about 2/3rds 
> of Internet users and growing rapidly. The Global North is close to saturation. The gap will widen. 
>
> China was ready to set up an alternate root to ICANN, according to ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade. As Columbia Professor Eli 
> Noam has suggested, this might not be a bad thing, so long as there is robust interconnection. Noam sees advantages 
> to having many Internets of different types. For example, Vint Cerf has said “If I could go back and put in public 
> key crypto, I probably would try.” http://bit.ly/2cJUGjt A company like Verizon could set up a separate system with 
> crypto, 128 bit addressing IP-V6 style, and a few other goodies like Bob Kahn's DOA. It could connect to the ICANN 
> system through a robust gateway, just as the United States and French telephone networks connect. Noam is right, 
> "splitting the Internet" could be harmless, except to the multi-billion dollar registry business and ICANN's bottom 
> line. (I don't see many practical purposes. The Chinese eventually decided it wasn't worth the trouble, especially 
> after Fadi promised them, "A seat at the table.")
>
> Giving up nominal control of ICANN was a way to defuse the movement to change the system. In practice, the U.S. had 
> nearly never exercised that authority because the folks running ICANN were almost always in agreement with the U.S. 
> Most were from the U.S. and allies; some even had worked for what DC calls "three letter agencies." They will be 
> choosing their successors. 
>
> Russia and China are unlikely to control ICANN in my lifetime. We may also have set a useful precedent for a more 
> open process. But we didn't solve any "problem" that affects much on the Internet.
>
> Dave Burstein
>
> (Yes, I know we didn't actually walk out, just refused to accept the treaty. I saw U.S. Ambassador Terry Kramer on 
> the floor the next day with his tourist gifts.)
>
> -- 
> Editor, Fast Net News, 5GW News, Net Policy News and DSL Prime
> Author with Jennie Bourne  DSL (Wiley) and Web Video: Making It Great, Getting It Noticed (Peachpit)



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