[LinuxUsers] Bill would give president emergency control of Internet

[Jeff Lasman]

On Tuesday 01 September 2009 12:03 am, John R. Hogerhuis wrote:

> Ah but that's putting it into the hands of a single private
> corporation.

Until very recently, I was a libertarian.  No more, though; what certain 
banks did has cured me (perhaps unfortunately) of libertarianism.

> But this is definitely a tricky one. The government regulates the
> airwaves, by way of the FCC. No one raises much fuss about that,
> since the spectrum is a natural resource owned by the public and we
> need a neutral third party to arbite access or chaos ensues and the
> medium becomes unusable.

A few years ago at a telephony conference in Los Angeles, I had the 
opportunity to spend some private time with, and speak with, Michael 
Powell, after he had left the FCC.  He left, he said, because of his 
frustration.

Though I didn't always agree with what Mr. Powell said, I generally 
liked the FCC under his leadership, and I'm sorry that the FCC has 
devolved into that, though of course it should have been forseen.

> The Internet on the other hand is composed largely of equipment in
> private hands.
>
> Yet from a layman's view, it is a transport for data not unlike the
> airwaves regulated by the FCC. And our society is increasingly
> dependent upon that medium.

And not to mention that it was, in the U.S., a government "asset" (for 
want of a better word) until it was put into completely commercial 
hands just about 14 years ago, in 1995.

See: http://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html

> So you want to say, hey that's private property the government has no
> business interfering with private property. But really it's a
> mistaken believe to think that property rights are absolute. Even
> your home can be taken away due to "eminent domain" laws. A law
> enforcement officer can commandeer your vehicle while pursuing a
> suspect. Some corporation makes an accusation that you stole data
> from them, and watch how quick the FBI comes and takes all your
> computers as evidence, based on merely an accusation (this has
> happened, by the way).

Very recently, and inconveniencing a lot of innocent bystanders, in 
fact:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/04/data-centers-ra/

> My point is, the government is *us* or the closest equivalent we
> have, so if *we* decide the Internet has become in some ways a
> resource that requires the protection of the government, then I don't
> think it's really Tea Party material. It's in the same line of
> non-absolute property rights we enjoy today.

There have been some arguments to this effect in Slashdot recently; 
sorry; I don't have any links to the threads.

> I look at kill switches for the Internet more like when Bush grounded
> the airplanes after 9/11. It isn't something that you want to happen
> all the time, but in retrospect it was probably a prudent thing to
> do. Could it be done with the Internet? Without a plan ahead of time,
> probably not, because regulation of the airline industry is much
> stronger and the Internet is a looser confederation of private
> system, almost completely self regulated.

And it won't be completely doable even with a lot of planning; simply 
look at how China tries to see how hard it is.

And there's always amateur radio operators (I recently let my own 
license expire, but now I'm thinking of renewing it) who can always set 
up virtual "bridges" as it were, and a lot of private networks to shut 
down.

An internet failure would be incredibly disruptive to the commerce of 
this country; much more so than simply grounding airline flights.

As a simple example, how many utility bills, rent bills, house payments, 
car payments, etc., wouldn't be made without the day-to-day income the 
Internet facilitates for many people; even for some of us (me, for 
example).  You think we're in a recession now?  Look at even two weeks 
without the Internet.

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman, Nobaloney Internet Services
P.O. Box 52200, Riverside, CA  92517
Our jplists address used on lists is for list email only
voice:  +1 951 643-5345, or see: 
"http://www.nobaloney.net/contactus.html"