[arin-ppml] ARIN and the ITU

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

Chris,

Influence in government is a two way street.

I realize that if ITU doesn't understand IP address allocation that
they cannot exert any kind of control at all, direct or indirect.  But
by educating them, "gaining a voice in the union" as it were, that
is also an invitation for them to "gain a voice with us"

It's a two way street.  I know probably some of you don't believe
me or even understand what I'm talking about but just remember this
10 years from now because by then you will understand.

Quite a lot of "governance" these days is done this way.  For
example in the US do you seriously think that the Chinese Government's
opinions have absolutely no effect on what the US Government does?
When the US Government is currently essentially funded by the
Chinese?  Putting it another way, it isn't really necessary for
the Chinese to invade, occupy and control the United States.  They
already have the means to make the US Government do whatever they
want it to.

By opening relations with ITU, ARIN may think it's in the drivers
seat of that relationship now, but it won't stay that way.  Once
the ITU members are educated and understand, they are going to want
to inject their "perspective and experience" back into ARIN the same
way that ARIN wants to inject it's "perspective and experience"
into the ITU, now.

I'm not saying this is all bad.  ARIN needs to be part of the recognized
power structure in the world government or when things get tight then 
the global players are going to exert pressure on the existing 
recognized power structure to take over IP allocations from the RIRs. 
It is much better now for ARIN to get engaged with that crew so that 
when the screws get turned later on, the ITU will be supportive of ARIN 
and push back against the governments (who really only have their own 
national interests at heart) so that nobody does anything radical.  But, 
the downside is that when you get involved in their business,
they are going to get involved in your business.

I just find it very foolish of people to think that IP address
assignment is somehow "above the law" and not of interest to the
world's governments.  Trust me, if the RIRs had screwed up address
assignment the governments would have taken it over a long time
ago, probably under the auspices of the ITU.  That is exactly
what happened when the registrars screwed up with the DNS system, and 
WIPO stepped in and ordered ICANN to come up with the UDRP.  And 
nowadays ICANN won't do anything significant with the DNS system unless 
they go to WIPO first.

Ted

On 7/2/2010 2:56 PM, Chris Grundemann wrote:
> +1
>
> ARINs involvement in the ITU does not equal government control of ARIN, it
> may however equal ARIN influence of government.
>
> ~Chris
>
> My Android sent this message.
>
> On Jul 2, 2010 2:37 AM, "Eliot Lear"<lear at cisco.com>  wrote:
>
>   Ted,
>
> On 6/30/10 8:45 PM, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
>> I have to agree mostly with Milton here, also I'll point out that
>> recently ARIN joined the ITU and as the ITU is an agency of the
>> United Nations, ARIN has in some ways lost it's independence
>> from the government.
> I don't know of a single process change that has occurred because ARIN
> has joined the ITU as a sector member.  Moreover, by doing so, ARIN has
> gained a voice within the Union.  So have three of the four other RIRs.
> It's important that ARIN and the other RIRs make use of that voice to
> explain how the Internet works.  Absent that voice, a void has existed
> that has been filled with misinformation.
>
> Eliot
>
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