OK-- who is saying what. Either Declan is mis-reporting or Tony is wrong or both are partilaly right or wrong.

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

A United Nations agency is quietly drafting technical standards,  
proposed by the Chinese government, to define methods of tracing the  
original source of Internet communications and potentially curbing the  
ability of users to remain anonymous.

The U.S. National Security Agency is also participating in the "IP  
Traceback" drafting group, named Q6/17, which is meeting next week in  
Geneva to work on the traceback proposal. Members of Q6/17 have  
declined to release key documents, and meetings are closed to the  
public.

The potential for eroding Internet users' right to remain anonymous,  
which is protected by law in the United States and recognized in  
international law by groups such as the Council of Europe, has alarmed  
some technologists and privacy advocates. Also affected may be  
services such as the Tor anonymizing network.

"What's distressing is that it doesn't appear that there's been any  
real consideration of how this type of capability could be misused,"  
said Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information  
Center in Washington, D.C. "That's really a human rights concern."

U.N. agency eyes curbs on Internet anonymity | Politics and Law - CNET  
News
URL: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10040152-38.html?tag=nl.e703

A United Nations telecommunications agency is drafting a proposal  
called 'IP traceback' and has scheduled a meeting next week. Its  
potential impact on anonymity is raising alarms. Read this blog post  
by Declan McCullagh on News - Politics and Law.

Begin forwarded message:

From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: September 11, 2008 1:15:20 PM EDT
To: "ip" <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: [IP] Network design and operations, not political agenda
Reply-To: dave () farber net



Begin forwarded message:

From: Tony Rutkowski <trutkowski () verisign com>
Date: September 11, 2008 12:59:21 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Network design and operations, not political agenda

A blog note was recently circulated alleging that an
"An ITU study group is apparently considering a
proposal for network traceback that includes the
following among its rationales [quote on limiting
political expression]."

The allegation is not true.

I personally helped facilitate the consideration and
adoption of the work item at the April meeting of
ITU-T Study Group 17 (security). Concerns relating both
to effective network management and well as providing a
means for international caller-ID were amalgamated to
create a new work item shepherded by editors from the
U.S., China, Japan, and Korea.   The underlying
requirements relate to network management, settlements,
infrastructure protection, and law enforcement support
that pretty much exist worldwide, and include ongoing
proceedings and legislation in the U.S. Congress, the FCC,
the European Commission, and others worldwide.

Minimally, the work will pull together valuable
information concerning techniques, platforms, and
development needs.  It has no normative stature.
The international caller-ID capability would be
a nice feature for telephony.

The political motivation text was not part of any known
ITU-T proposal and certainly not the one which I helped
facilitate.   Extensive searches for the source of the
text have yet revealed nothing.

--tony





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