Fwd: US -run internet agency aids gov't censorship

[Guest guest]

[This is a slightly esoteric article about the complexities of

top-level domain ownership, but it's worth reading, as it has direct

implications for continued freedom of expression on the internet.]

 

" ...in a little under two hours, the ICANN Board set aside a process

that had held since the very earliest days of the Internet. Not only

that but it provided governments with instant, unassailable control

over what happens under their designated area of the internet.

 

" If a company running a country code top-level domain refuses to agree

to hand over any information or data held by it to the government,

either legally, illegally or extra-legally, secretly or not, the

government can simply replace the company with a government-run

agency. If it refuses to shut down a website, or to redirect it

elsewhere, the government can simply replace it with a government-run

agency.

 

" It is a nuclear option, but neverthless a nuclear option that didn't

exist prior to July. It will also never have to be used - the threat

of its use will see any company wanting to keep hold of its livelihood

agree to government demands.

 

" Of course this would never happen. Except it has already. Within

months of the government-run 'Association of Kazakh IT Companies'

getting control of Kazakhstan's internet domain, it shut down the

website of British comic Sacha Baron Cohen (best known as Ali G). The

site at www.borat.kz featured another of Cohen's comic creations,

Borat Sagdiyev, a Kazakh journalist. It was removed from the Internet.

 

" Why? The president of the organisation said it was so the comic

'can't bad-mouth Kazakhstan under the .kz domain name'. If you want an

example of government-owned and run censorship on the internet, you'll

be hard pushed to find a clearer example. "

 

Full story at: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/29/us_undermines_internet/