Opaque Lucidity

The Series Of Tubes

The Internet's key site identity system is in mounting danger from new techniques that could cause havoc by turning it into a free-for-all market, the World Intellectual Property Organization WIPO warned on Monday.

If you're a techie, you know that cyber-squatting has been going on for 15 years. What's new is how the UN is using this issue and others to make the argument that UN-based agencies need to manage the internet. That would be, without a doubt, the worst thing that could happen.

Let's face reality. Despite the fact that the internet makes it possible for people from all over the world to connect to one another, the reality is that relatively few countries drive most of the traffic online. North America, Europe, Japan, South Korea, India and Russia pass more data around the world than any other group of nations you can name. With this in mind, should the internet be overseen by agencies made up of people from countries like Libya?

If the UN ever does gain control of the worldwide internet, I predict that the serious players in the online world will simply create another network. The continents/nations I named above have the resources to build their own interlinked pipelines. No, it wouldn't be the free-wheeling 'net we know today, but nor would it be under the boot heel of delegations from places like North Korea.