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Re: Wired: Congress to Enter ICANN Fray

  • From: Joel Baker
  • Date: Thu Mar 14 16:52:06 2002

On Thu, Mar 14, 2002 at 01:20:55PM -0800, Larry Diffey wrote:
> 
> When did the Internet become CENTRAL to national security????  Mildly
> important? Sure.  Central? No way!  I think Senator Burns is mistaking
> national security for political security therefore he must DO SOMETHING
> about the problems at ICANN.

The day that more than a few businesses started making it part of their
core process. Guess what, folks? Those customers you value so much, the
ones who pay your salary - they depend on you. Turn a major portion of the
network off, and you won't kill the economy as we know it; but there sure
as well would be a Film At 11, and a whole lot of companies scrambling to
figure out what the hell to do to keep functioning (not to mention some few
stock markets, monetary exchanges, and a number of other places who would
continue to function, but only in a lesser capacity).

The government quite values business. They pay for most of their campaigns.
And, hell, for that matter, the country's economy *is* a matter of national
concern. Does this mean the whole bit with ICANN is warranted? I couldn't
really say. But it does mean that we *are* on the radar for these folks.

Many folks have made predictions that the Internet would not be allowed to
run unregulated once it became as crucial as the technophiles envisioned it
to be; this sort of questioning is *exactly* what you should have been
expecting. Whether it goes further, I will not attempt to predict, but the
fact that it has arrived should not be suprising anyone who's even mildly
aware of the world outside the innards of a router.
-- 
***************************************************************************
Joel Baker                           System Administrator - lightbearer.com
[email protected]              http://users.lightbearer.com/lucifer/