[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Internet meeting spurs controversy here

[shanedr]

Why would you even invite countries that are opposed to the Internet?

[wwalker]

Regardless of the outcome of this meeting for the US to be bound by it requires more than just a UN approval. For the US to agree to a real treaty requires that two thirds of the senate approve the treaty and then the Pres must sign it. Don't know what the EU has in place for treaty approval, but I'd guess that EU countries must have some approval rights as states do in the US. This tells me that the "free world" would probably not participate in a restrictive treaty that they don't agree with.

[GIANFRANCOFRONZI]

You can't regulate something that doesn't exist in countries , or a different realty . It is in a world that can morph itself , and you couldn't keep up with it . It is our future . And future is an ongoing battle of gain and loss , do you want to mess with that ? The possibility of a better future , or a future directed by a group with good intentions . Well they say " The highway to hell is paved with good intentions ".

Gianfranco Fronzi . Dec./ 12

[CarlatFSJ]

I have been around this thing call the Internet for over thirty years. At that time it was text based and pictures were made of x's and o's or something like that. The internet was free and it was understood by all that anything, even personal emails, were in the public domain once posted. No privacy no trademarks, no content rights. What as changed, big business, commerce as deem this a great way of making revenue. This meeting is a meeting not of government but of commercial interests and as always they will do whatever is in their interest. Can we now live without the internet, or will we now pay for use? For those old enough to remember the start of cable TV. We thought who would pay for the right to watch we then watched for free. Well interesting we watched for free is now gone and cable is all that is left.

[micker377]

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Regardless of the outcome of this meeting for the US to be bound by it requires more than just a UN approval. For the US to agree to a real treaty requires that two thirds of the senate approve the treaty and then the Pres must sign it. Don't know what the EU has in place for treaty approval, but I'd guess that EU countries must have some approval rights as states do in the US. This tells me that the "free world" would probably not participate in a restrictive treaty that they don't agree with.

Just like when the ITU set the world wide frequency allocations. HBO commercially used the frequencies allocated to the HAM band experimental class. This was illegal! That's the reason that when HBO tried to sue all of the people who built their own converters, they were thrown out of court.
I even painted my dish gold - so they couldn't miss it!!! They never bothered me, knowing it would do them no good!

[micker377]

Quote

I have been around this thing call the Internet for over thirty years. At that time it was text based and pictures were made of x's and o's or something like that. The internet was free and it was understood by all that anything, even personal emails, were in the public domain once posted. No privacy no trademarks, no content rights. What as changed, big business, commerce as deem this a great way of making revenue. This meeting is a meeting not of government but of commercial interests and as always they will do whatever is in their interest. Can we now live without the internet, or will we now pay for use? For those old enough to remember the start of cable TV. We thought who would pay for the right to watch we then watched for free. Well interesting we watched for free is now gone and cable is all that is left.

Do you remember the CONCEPT for cable? Over-the-air TV used commercials to support them. Cable was to be subscriber supported, so NO commercials!
What happened???

[JimH443]

CarlatFSJ, on 02 December 2012 - 06:21 PM, said:

For those old enough to remember the start of cable TV. We thought who would pay for the right to watch we then watched for free. Well interesting we watched for free is now gone and cable is all that is left.

Oh yes, I remember cable TV in its infancy. Many were drawn to it because it was commercial-free. Those days are long gone because the owners of the cable channels found that people would STILL subscribe even when commercials started appearing. Oh, there were those subscribers who complained - but for the most part, they remained subscribers. And the bottom line is simply, "Is the money coming in?" If the answer is "Yes," any and all complaints can be ignored.

[vytautas]

Amazing at the extend of the FUD surrounding this conference. The ITU seems like a bogey man. However it can do some good things like set the country dialing codes. Before 1988 we used to ask the operator for help to make an international call. Because of the ITU work we can call anywhere in the world from our own home or PDA on our own without anybody's help. The Internet needs attention. If the ITU is not the right organisation t which one should it be? It is a "wild west" out there in cyberspace and the model for Internet Governance coming from the 1980's does not seem to work well in the times of Stuxnet, Flame and other malware yet to come. The makers of which only seem to benefit from the lack of "governance" or any kind of "regulation".

[fredfillis]

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Regardless of the outcome of this meeting for the US to be bound by it requires more than just a UN approval. For the US to agree to a real treaty requires that two thirds of the senate approve the treaty and then the Pres must sign it. Don't know what the EU has in place for treaty approval, but I'd guess that EU countries must have some approval rights as states do in the US. This tells me that the "free world" would probably not participate in a restrictive treaty that they don't agree with.

That might well be true but it doesn't matter anyway. Apparently the US does not control the internet. Other countries will sign up. The internet will become more of a patchwork than it is already. What that means for US based users? Who knows. But there are (People in the World - 300 million) beyond US borders, maybe it doesn't matter whether the US signs up or not. Others will do their own thing.

[leduyIT]

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Why would you even invite countries that are opposed to the Internet?

Others will do their own thing

[Stevec]

Too bad the participating countries weren't identified, especially the countries proposing tariffs.

[lr347394]

Where do you live that you can't get free Terrestrial/OTA programming? There are a lot of us who still get that "free tv" that you are talking about!

[webmasteroftheinternet]

How did we ALL get here to die?; who's in charge?