U.S. fails to win early limit on Net controls at global gathering | Hacker News Reader

U.S. fails to win early limit on Net controls at global gathering

reuters.com

33 pointsmtgx8 comments

So the coalition that's trying to get this put in place is comprised of authoritarian regimes like Russia, China, and Iran, and developing countries that have seen their long distance fees decline. Why not drive a wedge between those two groups? Surely there must be a way to address the concerns of developing countries without also capitulating to the anti-freedom crowd. Less palatably, but perhaps more likely, the authoritarian bloc could probably get what it wants without jeopardizing the competitiveness of US firms.

Please note that this "anti-freedom crowd" is also heavily supported by the major telecom corporations from the US and Europe, and the predominantly American copyright lobby also likes to join in the fun.

Yes, Western corporations are siding with repressive regimes against their own people and government. I can't think of a better argument to eradicate corporatism.

What might the ramifications of a US/Canadian/Eurozone withdrawal from the ITU treaty be?

I could see that being deleterious to our access to markets in Africa long term. If the Chinese are perfectly willing to just "throw money at the problem", and we take the position of "standing on principle", well it isn't hard to see who the Africans will be doing most of their business with(1). Africa will be very important in the future as a market. If I'm a US policymaker, and PARTICULARLY if I'm a FRENCH policymaker, I have to think that I wouldn't cede access to that territory so casually. Especially not over something as trivial as them wanting Google to pay routing fees. That sounds, to me, like something that can be worked out. The complication, of course, are Chinese telecoms that are there, money in hand, perfectly contented to pay those fees.

Anyway... that's just one drawback I can think up off the top of my head. Arguably, the most important one long term. But there are others. Some probably far more important in the short to medium term.

(1 - I realize that the Africans MAY ALREADY be doing most of their business with China. I only used future tense because I don't KNOW that they already do most of their business with China.)

What about for the ITU? Surely without the support of the Western world it would lose much of its punch.

Freedom isn't popular, unfortunately.

Strange thing when you talk about russia and other potentially censoring regimes you'll also need to talk about SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and what ever else the western governments try to pull off..

It's not like "we" are exactly a role model, either..

Interesting, since it was a regional vote, that means Australia and ROK, two of our allies on ITU, were outvoted within their regions. Wonder what region Australia is classified as?

Implies that South America (somewhat expected) and Africa (expected) voted to support the ITU against the US.

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