Please
consider the deep interactivity between media
and society. Now pause and think about the
significance of Internet addresses.
Are you aware the
network players who govern the domain name
system (DNS) in effect govern the evolving
global Internet, and thereby affect the shape
our evolving world? Are you aware that your
personal freedom is in jeopardy from DNS
despotism?
Connect the dots. The
political systems we adopt to govern our public
Internet do influence the cultural systems we
adopt to govern ourselves in private life. Given
the central role of communication in weaving the
web of society, autocracy in Internet
governance breeds autocracy in local to global
governance.
Please don't let
technophobia keep you from thinking clearly
about how we govern the Internet. Please have
the courage to endure the temptation to turn off
emotionally to any technical topic. Please don't
ignore the problem because you don't know the
lingo.
The basic issues
involved here are not hard to
understand.
>
The DNS battle
is over control of Internet addresses for email
and websites. Who owns the hot domain names with
the most traffic? Who collects fees as the
claims office in the cyberspace land rush? Who
controls domain name dispute resolution
policies? Who has the leverage for locking in
profitability by controlling Internet
governance?
>
At the heart
of the dispute is the set of dot.something
"top-level-domain" addresses that come after a
username, not only ".com" or
".net," or ".org," but also
".info, .biz, .us,
.co.uk, .nl, .ru,
.com.au, .jp" and so on all around
the world.
>
Every new
top-level domain (TLD) opened to the public for
name registration (like "catchyname.tv")
represents billions in potential income.
Fortunes are at stake for the ones who own
marketable domain names under that new TLD
("amazon.tv"). Fortunes await those
select few registrars collecting fees for
registering names under the new TLD.
>
The domain
system is being governed by the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN), a private corporation set up by the
U.S. government. Critics claim the ICANN Board
has been "captured" by world trademark owners in
league with domain name registries to dominate
DNS policies, disenfranchising billions of
people worldwide with no say. Hurdles abound for
those trying to change ICANN policies, which are
closely tied to WTO and other globalization
policies.
The stakes are huge --
political, economic, social, cultural,
personal.... How our Internet is governed
affects how we live, love, learn, work, play,
and vote, or if we vote at all. Our choices do
matter. Your own choices do matter. You can
and do make a difference.
.
ICANN'T
Why do I contend ICANN
is an illegitimate Internet government? Three
reasons:
(1) There has never
been any public vote to privatize the public
Internet. The Internet innately is public
property because the Internet was established
with tax dollars, and because the bandwidth used
is a natural public resource, just as the
spectrum used for broadcast TV is a public
resource regulated by governments we elect.
(2) There has never
been any public vote to make ICANN (or anyone)
the absolute ruler of our public Internet
structures. The organization was created in a
unilateral deal with the United States
Government's Department of Commerce, dispite
protests from many other nations. Not even the
U.S. Congress was given a vote in the
establishment of ICANN.
(3) ICANN's own
misconduct (see the ICANN
analysis
findings)
renders the private corporation unfit for
authority, such as how ICANN gerrymanders its
constituencies to manipulate the outcomes of
board elections, for instance, preventing
involvement of independent domain name owners
objecting to global trademark owner
dominance.
I have maintained since
1999 that ICANN deserves public investigation. I
further call for an overhaul of the Internet
governance structure. Why not try real democracy
instead?
Please consider the
proposal for network democracy in
Global
Sense
97.
Following the logic of Tom Paine in Common
Sense calling for freedom from a mad king,
that all the abused have a right to question the
power of their abusers, I'm calling for freedom
from the madness of a committee that would be
king. The fox is running the hen house, and it
seems the rest of us are viewed as foolish
chickens with no say in our fate.
Pretending ICANN is
legitimate is to mimic those fabled courtiers
who refused to see the bare truth that the
emperor wore no clothes. As for ICANN as the
king, not only is the ruler naked, but the ruler
has no right to the throne.
Please consider whether
humanity has outgrown kings. Are we finally
ready for real direct democracy? Instead of
decrees by kings, what if primal policy votes of
ICANN's board must to be ratified by we the
common people, we the "netizens" of the world?
What if we use the resources of the Internet to
educate ourselves and vote intelligently? The
technology for secure online voting is not all
that difficult, the main barrier being vote
fraud prevention, which means enough R&D for
reliably secure online voting.
Because we are
suffering from ICANN's illegitimate network
governance, we have a natural right and moral
duty to question ICANN's right to rule us. Our
freedom and responsibility to decide our own
future is being denied to us by ICANN and the
factions it represents.
When will we lean out
through the browser window and shout aloud at
the network players that we're as mad as hell
and we're not going to take it any more?
.
YOU
CAN
If this conversation
about network governance seems way too esoteric
for you, if your technophobia is biting back big
time, please consider the dangers of remaining
blind to the danger. Rather than bliss, in the
new Information Age, ignorance is
bondage.
If we wish to live in
open societies where we are free to practice
responsible self rule, what I call "personal
democracy," we can help ourselves by supporting
true democratic governance of our domain name
system and the Internet as a whole.
Consider the many
options in the wide spectrum from tyranny to
freedom. What do you want? As a global network
stakeholder by natural right, why not take the
time to educate yourself? Why not accept
responsibility for how the Internet impacts you
and yours?
Along with reading
Global
Sense97 and
the ICANN
analysis,
please read the sampler of governance voices
from the "Committees
of
Correspondence"
as a good primer on DNS issues. Although my
research dates from 1997 and 1999, the core
issues and patterns of abuse reported and
discussed continues. Lamentably, the indictment
of ICANN remains as valid today as ever, and the
alleged offenses (plus new ones) remain
unprosecuted.
Get
Informed
and Get
Involved.
Beyond the links I
provide, please access your favorite search
engines and go exploring, perhaps starting with
the keywords appearing in this section. Learn as
much as you can fit into your head, then relax
and "hold the question" of network democracy as
you allow a gestalt to emerge. Your soul already
knows what's right for yourself and the world.
The squeaky wheel gets
greased. If enough of us practice personal
democracy, if enough of us get
informed and
get
involved, if
enough of us deliver polite yet strong messages
to the leaders in the DNS game that we want
network democracy, regardless of our political
party, our participation
defacto
strengthens civil
democracy on earth in the 21st Century.
Speak & be
heard.
.
.
Thank you. -- Judah Ken Freed
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