[CCWG-ACCT] FW: WSJ/Crovitz/Obama's bungled internet surrender

[Paul Twomey]

Kieren

I think your analysis is quite correct.  But appearing regularly in the 
WSJ also means that the view is being picked up by business/financial 
types in cities like New York.  It is a bigger base than just 
Congresspeople.   And they are probably more influential on the range of 
Republican candidates for President.

I hope this process is completed before mid-2016.

Paul

-- 
Dr Paul Twomey
Managing Director
Argo P at cific

www.argopacific.com



On 5/20/15 4:47 AM, Kieren McCarthy wrote:
> This is just the latest in a series of knowingly slanted columns from 
> Crovtiz on this.
>
> At one point Larry Strickling got so sick of them that he sent a 
> letter to the WSJ complaining about how patently biased they were.
>
> More info: 
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/09/commerce_secretary_engages_in_war_of_words_with_wsj_over_iana/
>
>
> I'm not sure that anyone takes Crovitz seriously but his columns are 
> used by Republicans in Congress to bolster their pre-decided position. 
> So in that sense, they can't be ignored. But at the same time, he has 
> decided what the reality is so there's little point in discussing them 
> either.
>
>
> Kieren
>
>
>
> On Tue, May 19, 2015 at 11:17 AM, Paul Rosenzweig 
> <paul.rosenzweig at gmail.com <mailto:paul.rosenzweig at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Colleagues
>
>     This is an opinion piece that published yesterday in the Wall
>     Street Journal.  I thought it might be of interest.
>
>     Paul
>
>     Paul Rosenzweig
>
>     Paul.rosenzweig at gmail.com <mailto:Paul.rosenzweig at gmail.com>
>
>     +1 (202) 329-9650 <tel:%2B1%20%28202%29%20329-9650>
>
>     VOIP: +1 (202) 738-1739 <tel:%2B1%20%28202%29%20738-1739>
>
>     Skype: paul.rosenzweig1066
>
>     Our travel blog: www.paulandkatyexcellentadventure.blogspot.com
>     <http://www.paulandkatyexcellentadventure.blogspot.com/>
>
>     My professional blog: www.paulrosenzweigesq.com
>     <http://www.paulrosenzweigesq.com/>
>
>     Link to my PGP Key
>     <http://www.redbranchconsulting.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19&Itemid=9>
>
>
>       Obama’s Bungled Internet Surrender
>
>
>         The group the White House favors for online oversight is
>         turning into an abusive monopolist.
>
>     <http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamas-bungled-internet-surrender-1431898743>
>
>     By
>
>     *L. GORDON CROVITZ*
>
>     May 17, 2015 5:39 p.m. ET
>
>     *68 COMMENTS*
>     <http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamas-bungled-internet-surrender-1431898743#livefyre-comment>
>
>     President Obama’s plan to give up protection of the open Internet
>     is wreaking havoc even though it will probably never be carried
>     out. In anticipation of the end of U.S. stewardship, the
>     organization the White House wants to give more power has become
>     an abusive monopolist, refusing to be held accountable by the
>     Internet’s stakeholders.
>
>     The administration last year announced its intention to abandon
>     the contract the Commerce Department has held since the beginning
>     of the Web with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
>     Numbers, or Icann. Congress used its power of the purse to block
>     the move, which had been set for September this year.
>
>     But the prospect of escaping U.S. oversight led Icann to deny
>     accountability even for its core duty of keeping its monopoly over
>     Web addresses working smoothly. The House Judiciary Committee last
>     week held a hearing titled “Stakeholder Perspectives on Icann: The
>     .Sucks Domain and Essential Steps to Guarantee Trust and
>     Accountability in the Internet’s Operation.”
>
>     The .sucks domain was one of hundreds of new top-level domains
>     Icann added beyond the original .com, .org and .gov. Icann,
>     organized as a nonprofit, collects a fee each time it approves a
>     new top-level domain and gets a cut of the registration charge for
>     individual domain names. The corporation’s total take so far from
>     the new domains is more than $300 million.
>
>     The Intellectual Property Constituency, an Icann stakeholder
>     group, calls the .sucks domain “predatory, exploitative and
>     coercive.” Judiciary chairman Bob Goodlatte says trademark holders
>     are “being shaken down”—compelled to buy new addresses defensively
>     to prevent their use.
>
>     Apple bought applestore.sucks. Gmail, Sam’s Club, Uber and Yahoo
>     <http://quotes.wsj.com/YHOO>registered .sucks addresses, as did
>     celebrities including Taylor Swiftand Kevin Spacey. The standard
>     price: $2,499, versus $10 for unclaimed .com addresses.
>
>     Mr. Goodlatte says the approval of .sucks “demonstrates the
>     absurdity and futility of Icann’s own enforcement processes.”
>     Instead of policing itself, Icann asked the Federal Trade
>     Commission to look into whether the .sucks domain is
>     abusive. Philip Corwin, a lawyer for the Internet Commerce
>     Association, wrote on the CircleID website: “This is the
>     equivalent of sending a message stating: ‘Dear Regulator: We have
>     lit a fuse. Can you please tell us whether it is connected to a
>     bomb?’ ”
>
>     Mr. Corwin told lawmakers the U.S. has been a “useful and
>     corrective restraint on Icann” and a “first line of defense
>     against any attempt at multilateral takeover and conversion to a
>     government-dominated organization,” so “should exercise strong
>     oversight in support of Icann’s stakeholders” in any transition of
>     the contract.
>
>     The Internet ain’t broke, and Mr. Obama shouldn’t have tried to
>     fix it. Icann and its stakeholders have spent the past year
>     exhausting themselves on the impossible mission the White House
>     set for them. They were tasked with finding some way to keep Icann
>     operating with accountability but without U.S. oversight.
>     Unsurprisingly, no one found a viable alternative.
>
>     Mr. Obama may be uncomfortable with American exceptionalism, but
>     the Internet since its launch has reflected U.S. values of free
>     speech and open innovation. That is why China, Russia and other
>     authoritarian regimes lust for the power to control it.
>
>     Some stakeholders proposed a new institution to oversee Icann,
>     while others wanted to build more accountability within Icann.
>
>     Last week Icann chief Fadi Chehade told the French news agency AFP
>     that China and Brazil agreed with Icann’s proposals to end U.S.
>     oversight and let Icann oversee itself: “It is now up to the
>     community to wrap them up, put them in a nice little box with a
>     bow and ship them to Washington.”
>
>     Even the Obama administration knows Mr. Chehade’s
>     nonaccountability approach is a nonstarter. The .sucks saga shows
>     that Icann won’t protect the Internet from unscrupulous business
>     practices, never mind authoritarian regimes.
>
>     The Commerce Department recently asked several stakeholder groups
>     how far past the original September date it would take to propose
>     and implement alternatives to U.S. protection. The Obama
>     administration still acts as if it can give up the contract
>     overseeing Icann, but it can’t. Congress banned any steps by
>     Commerce to give up the contract before the date in September,
>     when the agreement must be renewed for two more years. This means
>     Mr. Obama’s successor will decide.
>
>     The administration should tell Icann and the stakeholders to use
>     the next two years to focus on creating accountability for Icann.
>     If the White House persists in its wrongheaded idea to give up
>     U.S. protection for the Internet, it should take the precaution of
>     buying up ObamaInternetPlan.sucks.
>
>
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