Today in the life of the internet
We seem to be at a very interesting point in history. We may be battling for the heart of the internet. That's purple language, but that's what's going on.
Telecom agencies all over the world and the UN would like to see some form of “internet governance” in place. Their statutes or organizing principles are certainly broad enough to include the internet — they look at IP addresses and say, “That's us! We should be in charge!”
And, in the US at any rate, there's an unholy alliance between law enforcement and Hollywood that would like to help this regulatory development along. There are some big companies that would like to sell authentication services. Add this all together, and there is, right now, real pressure to change the way all of us look at this network of networks.
It's going to be hard to make this shift to regulation happen — after all, there really aren't many chokepoints in the system, and it's very difficult to say that citizens can use only particular IP addresses. My hope is that it's already too late to cause this change. The genie is out of the bottle.
But every time anyone says that “governance” necessarily involves “governments,” a tiny link in the chain is forged — and a telecom regulator, somewhere, looks up and smiles.
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