Understanding & Use of the Internet (UUI) Governing the Internet Spring 2012 G. F Khan, PhD

So far Internet & Theories (STT, SCOT etc) Community & Identity Information Society Online Politics and Democracy Privacy and Surveillance Legal & Ethical Considerations The Internet and the Digital Divide

This Lecture… Governing the Internet Why and Why not Policy issues Technical issues Network neutrality debate

Regulating the Internet: Historical Perspective In the early days of the Internet the prevailing view was that government should stay out of Internet governance. Self-regulations and Market forces will enforce order and standards of behavior

Regulating the Internet: Historical Perspective Regulating the Internet is, “Like trying to nail jell-O to the wall” (Clinton, 2000) Regulation and government usually linked to space/ territory A socio-technical phenomena difficult to control and regulate

Regulating the Internet: Historical Perspective “Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of the Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather. … Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are all based on matter, and there is no matter here.” (Perry Barlow 1996).

However, These view has failed to address crucial issues faced by the Internet users e.g. privacy, security, and access to diverse contents. The recent events (e.g. wiki leaks) and rapid growth of the Internet brought world wide crisis of governance

Need of Governance: Examples Wiki leaks Whether DNS servers had the right to stop hosting Wiki Leaks? Egypt goes offline The recent turmoil in Egypt is generating uproar about whether a government has the right to pull the plug in a matter of minutes.

As the number of users has grown worldwide, so have calls for protection of these important public and consumer interests

Why it is important to govern the Internet? Or Why should we be concerned?

Why to Govern the Internet? If Internet becoming more important to society, democracy ,and economy then any change can have important implications that should be tackled in political debate Government, NGOs, and industry need to prepare for potential challenges and opportunities e.g. Who has access: digital inclusion debate Do governments have right to control, support internet in their jurisdiction? E.g. pulling the plug of the internet Who has power to control wires and content/communication?

How to govern? The subject of “Internet Governance” covers a range of questions, few of which actually have to do with governing the Internet Mostly has to do with The roles of public and private sector Decision and management processes Power and control Development

The four (4) Layers of the Internet Economy Internet Commerce Layer 4 Intermediairy/Market Maker Layer 3 Application Infrastructure Layer 2 Internet Infrastructure Layer 1 Source Cisco

The (5) layers of the Internet Governance Social - Culture Layer 5 Economy Layer 4 Development - Policy Layer 3 Juridiction - Law Layer 2 Infrastructure - Standards Layer 1 Source Diplo

Map of complex IG issues

Internet Gouvernance components We can define three components: the technical engineering function that allows different components of the Internet to interact; ii) the technical coordination of the key protocols and addresses and names that underpin the technical functioning of the Internet; iii) the handling of public policy matters that should be discussed openly among governments, business and civil society.

(1)The technical coordination of the Internet - the development of Internet protocol (IP) standards; - the administration, coordination and allocation of IP addresses; - the delegation of domain names; - the coordination of the root server system; the coordination of procedures related to the technical coordination of the Internet. The organizations involved in the technical coordination of the Internet depend on constant input from and interaction with relevant experts to keep the Internet and its related technologies developing in a robust and global manner, providing a platform for business-led innovation and communication for users from around the world.

Several private-sector-led organizations ... They play a critical role in the technical coordination of the Internet, including technical security and stability, among them: - the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) - the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) - the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) - the Regional Addressing Registries (e.g. RIPE, ARIN, APNIC,LANIC and AFRINIC) - the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

Technical engineering IAB : strategic technical direction of the Internet, including architectural oversight of Internet protocol and procedures, and standards development oversight and appeal of the IETF (described below) IESG manages IETF’s activities and Internet standards process. It administers the IETF process by initiating working groups and either ratifying or remanding its output for further work. IETF Principal body that develops Internet standards specifications with its work including ENUM, Instant messaging and internationalized domain names through a widely participatory process, open to all interested parties. W3C develops interoperable specifications, guidelines, software and tools to promote the evolution and interoperability of the World Wide Web

(2) Coordination of the Internet names and numbers system ICANN is responsible for coordinating and managing the domain name system, a key technical function that underpins the Internet, ensuring universal resolvability of Internet communications so that all users can find a valid Internet address. ICANN’s responsibilities are limited to: - the administration, coordination and allocation of IP addresses and domain names; - the administration and coordination of the root server system4 - the coordination of relationships with other entities, such as the regional addressing registries and the ccTLD registries - promoting competition within generic top-level domain name space (.com, .org, .net, .biz, etc); - matters related to these functions such as a system for domain name dispute resolution.

(3) Public Policy Matters Public policy matters are, in general, the responsibility of governments. However, policy discussions must include the active participation of business and other stakeholders. A small sample of public policy matters related to the information society include: · intellectual property protection · taxation · privacy · trade · security · consumer protection / empowerment · education · spam

The role of different stakeholders a) Areas for government action Promotion of competition - Removal of barriers to competition · Trade liberalization · Spectrum Allocation. b) Areas where market-forces should prevail Competitive marketplace for the trade of Goods and services offered Innovation and technological developments c) Areas where self-regulation, choice, individual empowerment and industry led solutions should prevail User confidence - information and network security, consumer empowerment, etc, Domain Names and other aspects of the technical coordination of the Internet d) Areas where joint government and private sector action is required Education and skills development. Digital divide/opportunities through private/public partnership, Culture of security, for information exchange, communication and commerce. Prevention and enforcement against cyber-crime.

Some of the various interest groups competing for influence over the Domain Name and Addressing systems WIPO NSI/ Verisign ccTLD registries ITU (ITU-T) OECD Consumers US Military Foreign Business Registries ISPs Universities Registrars UNDP IETF IAB FTC Intellectual Property interests Root Server Operators Security Issues NATO US Business Developing World Governments Civil Society Groups Regional Internet Registries FCC ETSI W3C OECD governments

Internet Governance: Public sector vs. private sector concerns Tends to ask why are we not responsible for its operation? Wants more control Private Sector: Tends to ask what is so broken about private sector management that we have to change it? Give rise to the Internet technology DARPA, ITU, etc Currently responsible to run Internet.

Issues in power and control Laws people would like to pass Services governments would like to mandate Politics of these services

Laws people would like to pass Pornography Viruses Spam Taxation

Services governments would like to mandate Lawful intercept e.g. Egypt case Internet intelligence gathering Control of the content e.g. Korea cyber law (you use your real name to use Internet portals)

Politics of these services: Who pays for the service? Often an unfunded mandate Privacy issues

PART 2 Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality-debate What does it say? And why is it important issue?

Net Neutrality-debate Network neutrality is the principle that say all Internet traffic should be treated equally. Deals with the Internet traffic control ISPs and other network operators should not discriminate the internet traffic Based on the type of application, Source of content, Nature of content, and other criteria.

Proponents of Net Neutrality Many major Internet application companies are advocates of neutrality .e.g., Google Yahoo EBay Amazon etc Demand no regulation related to NN

Google’s view: Example Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet… …the broadband carriers should not be permitted to use their market power to discriminate against competing applications or content. Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online. More information: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/search/label/Net%20Neutrality

Opponents of Net Neutrality Opponents of net neutrality include hardware companies and members of the cable and telecommunications industries, including major telecommunications providers E.g. CISCO

Opponents’ View Violation of property rights: They say Net neutrality is a violation of the property rights of bandwidth providers because they should be able to decide how to allocate the bandwidth they produce. Crucial for Innovation and investment No incentive to make large investments to develop advanced fibre-optic networks if they are prohibited from charging higher preferred access fees to companies that wish to take advantage of the expanded capabilities of such networks. Preferential treatment if you pay more your data packets faster than other Internet traffic

Opponents’ View Thorne and other ISPs have accused Google and Skype of freeloading or free riding for using a network of lines and cables the phone company spent billions of dollars to build

Origen of Net Neutrality Increasing use of high bandwidth applications (online games, music and video downloading, including file-sharing via peer-to-peer networks), which demands further investments in network architecture development; Increasing use of wireless home networks, which allow neighbours to share an Internet connection, thereby reducing revenues for the service providers Development of new applications for voice and video transfer over the Internet (including VoIP technology) that threaten the revenues of traditional telecom providers who also offer Internet access;

Appendix: Porter's Five Market forces