2005年NPR美国国家公共电台九月-U.N. Control of the Internet and Open Inf

This is Day to Day from NPR news, I am Medlin Bran.

Have you ever wondered just who runs the Internet? Well a non-profit organization here in the US is responsible for technical oversight 1, but lately there's been some loud protests from other countries who want more of a say. The results of a UN tech-summit next month in Tunisia could determine whether the Internet remains 2 as open as it is today. And here with more is Day to Day tech contributor Xeni Jardin.

The biggest myth about the Internet is that it is an open virtual frontier with no boss and no rules. That is the myth. The truth is that someone has to manage all the technical stuff. The big databases of domain 3 names like NPR.org, the Internet protocol 4 numbers that identify each computer on the network. Right now, a California-based non-profit called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers--ICANN--manages all of that. It was established in the 1990s by the Department of Commerce which has made a point of keeping hands off, and plan to cut loose entirely 5 in September 2006. But recently, some countries have pressured international bodies like the UN and the European Union to take that power out of the US. The Department of Commerce responded, announcing that it would not let go of ICANN. Many observers say it s better to keep the US in control than to have the Internet become a plaything of dictatorships around the world.

“When America hold onto Internet, this would probably be better than having Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe holding onto the Internet and using it for his own domestic agenda.”

That's London based journalist Kenneth Cukier, author of a feature in November's Foreign Affairs Magazine called Who Will Control the Internet? Cukier says it's no accident that some of the world's most oppressive regimes are most eager to gain new power. One proposed solution is letting countries manage their own networks. Could this lead to the Balkanization of the Inernet?

“Coming from the Balkans this sounds very familiar.”

V.Markovsky is the founder 6 of the Bulgarian Internet society. He set up one of the country's first Internet service providers and is a member of the ICCAN board.

“Many countries have tried in the past to develop their own Internet. It didn't work out, if you want to be part of the world, you have to be part of a global network, not of a national network which is limited within your borders.”

Markovsky will attend the UN summit about these issues in November. But he says he is not terribly worried about nation's breaking off domestic Internet.

“And even if they do, their citizens will not use it, because they are not interested only in content which originate in the country, they are interested in global cultural issues, in global music, you know, in getting outside of the borders of the country. After all, that does sound the biggest advantage of the Internet right now.”

There's plenty of reason to believe that ICANN and the current system will endure. It's survived despite being a target of criticism since its inception 7. Esther Dyson served as chairman of ICANN from 1998 to 2000.

“The fact that people consider ICANN illegitimate actually makes everything safe, because ICANN can't do very much the moment you create something that can do a lot; you have a real danger of concentration, of arbitrary power. I think the notion of a world government or even of a global government just for the Internet is pretty scary.”

Further more, Dyson says a governing board is unnecessary for regimes that wannna limit access. Filtering software’s' already been used by governments including Iran, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia and other countries to block controversial websites.

“It's happening any way, you don’t need to control ICANN , you can control people in China and tell them, it's illegal to search certain sites on google, you can block those sites, you don't need I can to do that. If you are in North Korea, you can really stop a lot of stuff going on.”

They are not the only governments getting involved in the technical details of the internet. The US Department of Commerce next plans for a .xxx domain for adult websites this year after protests from social conservatives. But the Commerce Department says its overall goal is to keep all governments hands off the internets evolution to preserve free market development. And that is the stand US representatives are expected to take at the world summit on the information society next month in Tunisia. Commerce Department spokesperson David Grose addressing the issue of Internet governance recently declared this is not a negotiation 8.

Reporting from NPR news, I am Xeni Jardin.