[afnog] Re: Request for input: The Working Group on Internet Governance

Tue Nov 16 21:05:33 EAT 2004

Hi all,

Please refer below to a very disturbing email from RIPE. RIPE 
(http://www.ripe.net) is one of the regional Internet Registries that 
administers Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and autonomous system 
numbers (ASN) for the European region. RIPE has also been serving a 
large portion of Africa until recently when AfriNIC 
(http://www.afrinic.net) was recognised as the fifth RIR and mandated 
to serve the African region. RIPE "incubated" AfriNIC for one year and 
is playing a major role in bootstrapping our African Registry, which is 
now almost entirely based on the continent.

Please read through carefully - and then use whatever influence you 
have to ensure that ITU does NOT take any aspect of Internet number 
administration away from ICANN or the NRO (which has been mandated by 
ICANN).

This is a serious issue!

Regards,

Brian

-----------------------------------------------
Dear Colleagues,

As part of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
process, a proposal has been made that could dramatically affect
the way Internet number resources are distributed and managed.

On 21 October 2004, the Director of ITU-TSB published a
memorandum, "ITU and Internet Governance" for public comment.
This memorandum includes a proposal to create a new IPv6
address space distribution process, based solely on national
authorities.  This could have a serious impact on RIPE NCC
Members, Internet operators and the global Internet community
at large.

The Number Resource Organization (NRO), on behalf of the
Regional Internet Registries, has prepared a public response
to the ITU memorandum detailing the flaws of the proposal
and the negative impact it would have on Internet operations.

A summary of this response is available at:
http://www.nro.net/documents/nro18.html

The full response is available at:
http://www.nro.net/documents/nro17.html

The original ITU memorandum is available at:
http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/tsb-director/itut-wsis/files/zhao-netgov01.doc

We urge our members and others in the Internet community to make
their views about this issue known. Without your support being
*visible* and *explicit* the bottom-up, consensus based model on
which the success of the Internet has been founded may be replaced
by the top-down bureaucracy of "Internet Governance".

To show your support:

- RIPE NCC Members: Log in to the LIR Portal and tick the support
box. If you do not have an LIR Portal account, please email your
expression of support to: contact at ripe.net

- Non-members: Please email to: im-support at ripe.net. An email
archive of expressions of support will be available at:
http://www.ripe.net/maillists/ncc-archives/im-support/

- ITU-TSB Members: Please also contact your ITU member state
representative to voice your concerns you might have.

Internet number resource distribution is fair and accessible to all.
Its policy development process is open and transparent.  It works.

Let us keep it that way.

Regards,

Axel Pawlik
Managing Director
RIPE NCC

On Nov 17, 2004, at 5:57 PM, computer society wrote:

> Thanks Brian,
> I really appreciate this contribution. I will keep everyone informed 
> about the progress on the ideas from Brian and other colleagues. The 
> work group will also have current information at www.wgig.org which I 
> hope colleagues get some time to visit.
>
>
> Kind Regards
> Waudo
>
> At 12:29 PM 11/16/2004, you wrote:
>> Hi Waudo,
>>
>> Thanks for the update. I think the most critical aspect of the 
>> overall Internet Governance debate is that there are a number of 
>> misconceptions when this term is used and it have resulted in 
>> significant amounts of misunderstanding/conflict.
>>
>> The first step should be to clarify: What is Internet Governance? 
>> Once this is clearly defined it should then be easier to work out 
>> what needs to happen/who should be responsible/etc....
>>
>> Some of the issues that come to mind when the term is used include:
>> - Internet administration
>> - Internet Standards and Protocols
>> - Criminal acts which are commited using the Internet
>> - Unpleasant/Unacceptable acts/conduct/content which are carried over 
>> Internet
>>
>>
>> Internet Administration
>> This is a wide subject - but fortunately due to it's technical nature 
>> - very straightforward. In terms of administrative structures; the 
>> Internet depends on two basic resources which have existing clearly 
>> defined administrative structures/procedures and control mechanisms. 
>> These two resources are IP numbers (IP addresses and Autonomous 
>> System Numbers) and Internet Domain Names, both of which have a 
>> community-based, bottom up administrative body known as ICANN 
>> (International Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers). Other 
>> administrative issues relating to the Internet tend to fall under 
>> responsiblity of the various constituent networks and their 
>> administrations.
>>
>> Internet Standards and Protocols
>> This is currently handled mainly by the IEEE and IETF and a number of 
>> other standardisation bodies including certain aspects related to 
>> telecoms/frequencies etc which are held under the ITU etc
>>
>> Criminal Acts committed using the Internet
>> Criminal acts would typically fall under respective national 
>> governments and jurisdictions. The only problem here is that due to 
>> the nature of the Internet - a crime can be committed by an 
>> individual using a vast number of computer under his/her control 
>> which are physically resident in a number of different countries - 
>> most of the time, not the same country as the perpetrator. 
>> Difficulties arise due to widely varying legislation (e.g. in Kenya 
>> electronic evidence is inadmissible and not recognised by law). The 
>> issue of bilateral/multilateral extradition/prosecution treaties also 
>> arises and affects internet-based crimes because most of the existing 
>> code defines physical acts/offences. A lot of work is needed here....
>>
>> Unpleasant/Unacceptable acts/conduct/content which are carried over 
>> Internet
>> Intellectual property and copyrights are probably the most affected 
>> here. The new peer-2-peer file sharing software allows individual 
>> users to become content servers and advertise any music/movie/digital 
>> file that they want. The level of abuse using these media is 
>> phenomenal. Various forms of pornography, hate/violent content are 
>> also issues that are oftimes immune to national censorship 
>> laws/regulations. What kind of coordination of regulations is needed 
>> to appropriately address concerns while not violating personal 
>> privacy and the human right to communicate?
>>
>> I apologise for not providing any answers/concrete suggestions - it 
>> is almost impossible to have a single solution - but I hope that this 
>> email has helped outline some of the areas that contribute towards 
>> the confusion.
>>
>> Warm regards and best wishes in Geneva.
>>
>> Brian Longwe
>>
>>
>> On Nov 11, 2004, at 6:16 PM, computer society wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Colleagues,
>>>
>>> I will leave for Geneva on Nov. 22nd to attend the first 3-day 
>>> meeting of the UN Secretary General's Working Group on Internet 
>>> Governance. This is a big honour for our country that the SG has 
>>> selected someone from Kenya to represent the African continent 
>>> private sector in this working group, one of two working on 
>>> unresolved issues from WSIS I.
>>> From the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) and the CCBI 
>>> (Coordinating Committee of Business Interlocutors) we have compiled 
>>> position papers on this subject. Kenya has no position paper on 
>>> Internet Governance. I am requesting further input that Kenyan 
>>> colleagues may want articulated at the meeting.
>>>
>>> Kind Regards
>>> Waudo Siganga
>>> Chairman
>>> The Computer Society of Kenya
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ---
>>> Submitted by: csk at nbi.ispkenya.com 2004-11-10 10:24:32 EST5
>>> (Please reply to original submitter for private communication)
>>> ---
>>> You are currently subscribed to kiplist-cl as: [brian at pure-id.com]
>>> To unsubscribe, forward this message to %%email.unsub%%
>>>
>> --
>> Brian Longwe
>> CellFon: +254 733 518744
>> "Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future." Yoda
>>
>>
>> ---
>> Submitted by: Brian Longwe <brian at pure-id.com> 2004-11-16 04:25:21 
>> EST5
>> (Please reply to original submitter for private communication)
>> ---
>> You are currently subscribed to kiplist-cl as: [info at csk-online.org]
>> To unsubscribe, forward this message to %%email.unsub%%
>
>
>
> ---
> Submitted by: csk at nbi.ispkenya.com 2004-11-16 09:57:57 EST5
> (Please reply to original submitter for private communication)
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to kiplist-cl as: [brian at pure-id.com]
> To unsubscribe, forward this message to 
> leave-kiplist-cl-91321D at lyris.idrc.ca
>
>
--
Brian Longwe
CellFon: +254 733 518744
"Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future." Yoda
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 9481 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://listserv2.cfi.co.ug/mailman/private/afnog/attachments/20041116/69f12b65/attachment-0001.bin