---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nii Narku Quaynor <quaynor@ghana.com>
Date: Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 3:29 AM
Subject: [AfrICANN-discuss] Internet regulation at national level?
To: "africann@afrinic.net" <africann@afrinic.net>


Some have asked for regulation at national level but have failed to
name what to regulate and how to regulate it.

Perhaps as was pointed out by one member de-regulation may be more
beneficial to Internet countries and we should take that seriously

I also heard that we should regulate IP numbers and domain names at
national level. Well and good but how could this be done when IPs are
administered globally(iana/nro) and regionally through afrinic?

Similarly gTLD administration is not within the purview of nation
states as its administered globally at ICANN. Also best practices
suggest ccTLDs are better managed in a multi-stakeholder model giving
participation to registrants, ISPs, operators, civil society,
technical community, government and others. Thus ccTLDs are not
directly under government regulation and at best fall in a self
regulatory regime

Whois accuracy was mentioned but I did not hear what the government
will do beyond education. Also making laws on Whois beyond ccTLD is
questionable. Dispute resolution was additionally noted as potential
area of regulation but this is a legal practice and perhaps better to
reinforce existing local legal institutions with new Internet capacity
than for government regulation

The Internet is different for two reasons from the compared
transportation examples. First the Internet is already regulated
because it uses transmission media that is already very well
regulated. Thus an Internet user has paid the tariffs by the access
and need no further fees

Secondly, it defies geography by its organization in that an operator
in one country may operate a network that spams beyond its region.
Thus networks are not exactly national and national regulation would
only interfere in their expansion

Content regulation was mentioned and all have pointed to it as
difficult. All ways known disrupt the network structure and do not
achieve the intended objective as one can always work around. It also
begin to create authoritarian society by determining what adults read
or access. It breaks the openness which has allowed the developing
countries including Africa to catch in capacity

Competition has been suggested as another reason we need regulation at
national level. One very smart input pointed out that most of the
concerns are governance issues and not regulation yet non of the
advocates gave it the infamous ++++++++1?

Issues of policy environments that support development of national
industries, technical capacity, infrastructure of cables and exchange
points, business environment, local content, etc are governance issues
which all nations are exploring ways to gain competitive advantage in.
That is not achieved by closing our borders and regulating to hell.
Africa will fall behind if we go that route

As standards are global it should be clear our nations role is to
prepare its citizens to participate in international organizations
such as IETF, ISOC, W3C, ICANN, the I*s and in Africa the Af*s.

So assuming there is a role for regulating the Internet nationally the
next the question of why do it if it's being done elsewhere remained
unanswered. In fact if we are to be sincere Africa has some way to go
to develop what it takes to participate in existing global
organizations and very unclear the ability to do

The strength of nation states is in developing enabling environment
for investments, capacity, security, openness, competition, IPv6
migration, etc which are governance issues in a de-regulated Internet
environment

So, can someone make the case for national regulation of the Internet
again clearly?


_______________________________________________
AfrICANN mailing list
AfrICANN@afrinic.net
https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/africann


--
Barrack O. Otieno
+254721325277
+254-20-2498789
Skype: barrack.otieno
http://www.otienobarrack.me.ke/
_______________________________________________
isoc mailing list
isoc@orion.my.co.ke
http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/isoc