UN body to regulate internet?

sneakyimp

Obviously, somebody needs to deal with the spam issue, but is a UN body the one to do it?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7011503/

pohopo

exactly what would they do? how will controlling the technical aspect of distributing domain names going to curb spam? or better question is what can they do that ICANN is not already doing?

sneakyimp

that's kinda what i'm talking about. what the f**k does the UN know about the internet?

Weedpacket

Originally posted by sneakyimp
that's kinda what i'm talking about. what the fk does the UN know about the internet?

What the fk does the UN know about sanitation, agriculture or childhood education?

pohopo

if ICANN was a profit organization and used it to manipulate and control the internet then i would agree it should be moved to a non profit body that can regulate it and be unbiased. my question is what steps would the UN do to improve the internet? saying they will eliminate spam means nothing unless they say how they plan to do it.

Weedpacket

By taking ICANN under its wing? If you read the report you'll see that it's not the UN's idea - so why would they have a plan yet?

Besides, as the report further notes, ICANN is seen as being too much subject to United States political whim.

The UN's own take on the whole thing (which pretty much sums up its involvement) is here. By following a couple more links you can get the report from the relevant working group (consisting of these people who I guess are not the sort of people who would have any idea about the Internet); you can get lists of the organisations who plan to attend the summit (which will be held in November); the list of those who attended the preparatory meeting reported on runs to fifty six pages and includes representatives from the International Telecommunications Association, EPIC, Cisco, CERT, Alcatel, ICANN, and Intel (no, they wouldn't know anything about the Internet either). The FSF plans on being at the summit, too.

Gee, and I found all that out without leaving my seat. Ain't the Internet grand?