Re: [ALSC-Forum] Re: a proposed action statement

[Esther Dyson]

thanks, Veni!

Esther

At 06:46 AM 10/27/2001, veni markovski wrote:


>>With apologies to the non-US members of this list, I'd like to make some 
>>comments that are inevitably US-centric.
>
>Mike, the non-US members of the Internet are not a minority that needs to 
>fight for our rights, I believe.
>
>>This legislation brings the Internet and its developers, providers and 
>>users directly into the new war on terrorism.  It extends extensive new 
>>power to law enforcement to find, capture, and punish those who use the 
>>network for terrorism or other criminal activity. It removes the previous 
>>barriers between foreign and domestic anti-terrorism investigations and 
>>establishes the principle that whoever you are, wherever you are, if you 
>>use the net for terrorism, you are in the sights of the FBI, the CIA, the 
>>NSA and their foreign counterparts.
>
>I hope that you understand legal procedures, and probably know that no 
>matter what law one country accepts, their partners should also have the 
>same laws in order for a certain activity to be punished.
>I also hope that there are enough NGOs in the US that may go and fight 
>control over Internet in the Supreme court. At least in Bulgaria, we've 
>done that 2 years ago with success.
>One should not punish the knife for it was used in cutting someone.
>There is no law in the world, except for crimes against humankind, that 
>may "remove the barriers between foreign and domestic investigation". Of 
>course, the US may _want_ to have such laws in every country, and may use 
>economic sanctions against countries that do not implement such laws.  BUT 
>this is only "may". It's one thing to want something, second - to be able 
>to do it, third - to make it happen.
>
>>In the New York Times this morning, under the heading "We are All Alone," 
>>widely respected
>
>You are not all alone, but you may as weel become lonely, if the attitude 
>is that "whoever is not with us, is against us".
>You know, this kind of thinking reminds me of...say Stalin's "There is a 
>man - there is a problem. THere is no man - there's no problem".
>Words should be used as careful as bombs, becuase they may cause the same, 
>or even more, damage!
>
> >columnist Tom Friedman said, "Focus instead on the firemen who rushed
> >into the trade center towers without asking, 'How much?' Focus on the
> >thousands of U.S. reservists who have left their jobs and families to go
> >fight in Afghanistan without asking, 'What's in it for me?' Unlike the
> >free-riders in our coalition, these young Americans know that September
> >11 is our holy day - the first day in a just war to preserve our free,
> >multi-religious, democratic society. And I don't really care if that war 
> coincides
> >with Ramadan, Christmas, Hanukkah, or the Buddha's birthday - the most
> >respectful and spiritual thing we can do now is fight it until justice 
> is done."
> >After a week of tough fighting in Afghanistan where the battle is rapidly
> >deteriorating to the same "take no prisoners" ethic that prevailed on 
> September
> >11, the same week that professionally prepared anthrax kept showing up 
> in new
> >places everyday on the U.S. east coast and killed two postal workers, 
> there is
> >a determined and deadly resolve to follow the Friedman advice.
>
>
>>A resolve that will affect many if not most institutions, among them ICANN.
>>
>>It's different now for ICANN.  What started out as your typical ritual 
>>White House privatization effort; one that parroted the young 
>>Clintonites' "Agenda for Action" of 1993; the Al Gore "Information 
>>Superhighway" speech; that provided a last hurrah for Clinton advisor 
>>Magaziner at the end of the second term.  A sly political move that 
>>solved, or maybe solved, the National Science Foundation's honest mistake 
>>in giving Network Solutions and SAIC a billion dollar monopoly. That is 
>>not the ICANN of post-Sept 11.
>
>Mike, let's try not to mix things. I was most scared on Sept. 12th, and 
>you may ask Esther Dyson about what happened in Bulgaria, in a 
>German-owned hotel: all covered with security and guards. But for no reason!
>
>>It's different now.  It's not world government because national 
>>governments are evil; it's not Internet governance because national laws 
>>are unjust; it's not a response to some abstract imagining of the global 
>>popular will; it's not solving poverty, famine, infanticide, drug abuse 
>>and political oppression in the DNS.
>>
>>It's serious.  It's first things first.  It's about keeping people from 
>>being killed by terrorist plots hatched over the net.
>
>Are there any proofs that the plot is done over the Net? Are there any 
>proofs that without the net, they would have not done it? No, thera aren't!
>
>>All of a sudden it matters that you know what you are talking about.  If 
>>you are an Internet engineer, what about nailing down the RFC's needed 
>>for secure new functionality in the DNS?  If you are a root server host 
>>organization CEO, all of a sudden being a volunteer in Jon Postel's army 
>>takes on new meaning.  If you're the manager of a top level domain name 
>>registry, it's not a pc in a closet time anymore. Important people are 
>>watching, people who have the ability to nationalize you overnight if 
>>you're not carrying your weight in making the Internet more secure.  The 
>>Japanese government and the United States government are sending cabinet 
>>level officers to speak at the November ICANN meeting about how serious 
>>this really is.
>
>It is serious, but Internet is more than protocols. It's exchanging ideas 
>and bringing people together. You can't stop terrorism by listening to 
>everyones' speech. Don't turn the US into the real "1984".
>
>Sincerely,
>Veni Markovski
>Bulgaria



Esther Dyson			Always make new mistakes!
chairman, EDventure Holdings
writer, Release 3.0 (on Website below)
edyson@edventure.com
1 (212) 924-8800    --   fax  1 (212) 924-0240
104 Fifth Avenue (between 15th and 16th Streets; 20th floor)
New York, NY 10011 USA
http://www.edventure.com

High-Tech Forum in Europe: canceled this year (details on Website)
PC FORUM: 24 to 27 March 2002, Scottsdale (Phoenix), Arizona