Nov 16
ITU: WCIT-12 Can’t Empower Governments to Exercise More Regulation of Internet, Broadcast and Cable
“There have not been any proposals calling for a change from the bottom-up multistakeholder model of Internet governance to an ITU-controlled model,” Paul Conneally, head of communications and partnership promotion for ITU, wrote on the organization’s website Friday, with the approval of ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Touré. “Internet Control is simply not in the ITU mandate.”
Dec 6
Explainer: What Power The UN Actually Has Over The Internet (Hint: Not Much), Tech Crunch
Google and much of the tech press are collectively freaking out over the alleged United Nations plot to “take over” the Internet being proposed at a gathering of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), but alarmists ignore a very important fact: The United Nations has little authority and even less historical effectiveness.
Dec 7
The UN’s Internet power grab: An FAQ, Computer World
he United Nations is not taking over the Internet. At least — not yet. But that’s the fear many have as talks take place in Dubia this week as the UN’s Telecommunication Union and delegates from around the world meet to decide whether it should have oversight or regulate the Internet. That has some big alarm bells ringing.
Dec 8
WCIT-12 leak shows Russia, China, others seek to define ‘government-controlled Internet’, Ars Technica
Some of the world’s most authoritarian regimes introduced a new proposal at the World Conference on International Telecommunications on Friday that could dramatically extend the jurisdiction of the International Telecommunication Union over the Internet.
In a Friday night email to Ars Technica, a spokeswoman for the American delegation portrayed the introduction of the new proposal by the United Arab Emirites partway through a key Friday negotiating session as a surprise—and an unwelcome one at that. Negotiators were irritated that they had not been furnished with copies of the proposal before it was formally introduced to the conference.
Dec 9
It’s Not Paranoia if They Are Really After You!, Circle OD
he United Nations is not taking over the Internet. At least — not yet. But that’s the fear many have as talks take place in Dubia this week as the UN’s Telecommunication Union and delegates from around the world meet to decide whether it should have oversight or regulate the Internet. That has some big alarm bells ringing.
The UN’s Internet power grab: An FAQ, Computer World
The United Nations is not taking over the Internet. At least — not yet. But that’s the fear many have as talks take place in Dubia this week as the UN’s Telecommunication Union and delegates from around the world meet to decide whether it should have oversight or regulate the Internet. That has some big alarm bells ringing.
Dec 10th
Net Freedoms In The Balance? Russian Proposal to ‘Share’ Control Attracts Support, Silicon Angle
Now, it would appear that some of the fears cited by western nations last week have been confirmed. The whistleblowing site WCIT Leakshas published a document containing a controversial proposal from Russia, which says that governance of the internet should be the shared responsibility of “governments, the private sector and civil society”, adding that It member nations should have equal rights to manage such things as internet naming, numbering, addressing and identification resources”.
Dec 11th
Russia, China withdraw controversial proposal at treaty conference, Computer World
Q&A With ITU Ambassador Terry Kramer: It’s All About Internet Freedom, Read Write Web
The problem is that people have ulterior motives when they want to include the Internet. It’s a very slippery slope that starts allowing governments, potentially, to be able to see what things people are looking at.
Proposals for a “sender pays” policy will roil UN talks in Dubai. MIT Technology Review
A United Nations agency opens debate on Monday over whether it should begin to regulate the Internet. The most hotly contested proposals come from European telecommunications providers and African and Arab countries that want big content providers to pay to send data across their networks.
The concept—known as “sender pays”—would radically alter today’s Internet economics. Some countries say their networks are groaning under video and other content provided in large part by U.S. companies such as Facebook, Netflix, and Google. These countries suggest that fees on content providers would help defray local infrastructure costs.
It also makes a wider point that attempts to add sections to the treaty about the internet could later by used by governments to legitimise interference into the operations of internet service providers (ISPs) and cloud-based operations such as Google or Facebook, “opening the door to censorship”.
However, others says the references are needed to help countries co-ordinate cybersecurity and anti-spam efforts.
- ITU BRIEFING
- US MEMO ON WCIT
Cyber Report 
Pingback: CLBR #82: Robert Ellis Smith Addresses Mobile App Privacy « Cyber Report
Pingback: CLBR #82: ROBERT ELLIS SMITH ADDRESSES MOBILE APP PRIVACY | Cyber Law & Business Report