At midnight September 30th something amazing is going to happen, the United States of America is relinquishing its oversight of the DNS to the ICANN which is also looking for a new home. Is there a possibility that the UN will be the new home
for the internet as many are speculating? Or is there a possibility that another country may call itself home to the internet via ICANN? What do these changes mean to the average user of the world wide web and internet? Not much, but to businesses and those who are advocates/activists, the changes may have a greater effect. "What is an IP address and a DNS?" You may ask. And "What is the significant result of the UN holding possession and oversight of the DNS?" I am so very glad you asked! IP is an abbreviation for Internet Protocol which are a set of rules as to how the internet is governed. When you register your computer and /or set up an internet account, you are connecting into the internet and therefore agreeing to the rules of conduct of activity and the facilitation of various actions through the use of the internet. |
As part of the agreement you are given an address, a code that identifies your computer from the billions of computers and other tech devices accessing the web and allows you to communicate with other devices using the web. To find out more, please go to whatismyipaddress.com
Whose Your Daddy?
There are many men who helped conceive the internet going as far back as Sir Francis Bacon in his book "New Atlantis" which he inspired a great many inventions within his Utopia. Other contributing fathers of the internet who conceived or anticipated the existence of world wide information networks are Nikola Tesla "world wireless system" 1900s, Paul Otlet (1930) and Vannear Bush (1940), and in the 1960s with J.C.R. Licklider (yes, that is his real name) promoting the "Intergalactic Network."
ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network),originally funded by the US Department of Defense came into play in the late 1960s and by the 1970s world dignitaries were using the internet, including the queen of England. (2.) In the 1970s, Robert Khan and Vinton Cerf invented Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol the standard we use today which was adopted by ARPANET in 1983. Then in 1990, the World Wide Web was born thanks to Tim Berners-Lee which helped popularize the internet. (3.)
Aaron Swartz the founder of an information library which pre-dated Wikipedia by 5 years, co-designer of RSS feed, conceptulizer of online shopping and stream lined shipping, co-founder of Reddit and the first to bring the Silicon Valley to task about putting profits margins as priority over net neutrality, and dared to launch the campaign to stop the US government from censoring the internet and limiting users communication with each other. Because of Aaron making SOPA /PIPA known to the public, internet users rallied together to conduct online protests defeating the passing of SOPA/PIPA and therefore protecting and keeping the internet as a neutral, uncensored, free and safe communication system. As a result, Aaron, sentenced to 35 years in jail, ended up dead in a jail cell (allegedly suicided) as a result of the charges the US government made against him. (4.), (5.) He was only 29 years old.
ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network),originally funded by the US Department of Defense came into play in the late 1960s and by the 1970s world dignitaries were using the internet, including the queen of England. (2.) In the 1970s, Robert Khan and Vinton Cerf invented Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol the standard we use today which was adopted by ARPANET in 1983. Then in 1990, the World Wide Web was born thanks to Tim Berners-Lee which helped popularize the internet. (3.)
Aaron Swartz the founder of an information library which pre-dated Wikipedia by 5 years, co-designer of RSS feed, conceptulizer of online shopping and stream lined shipping, co-founder of Reddit and the first to bring the Silicon Valley to task about putting profits margins as priority over net neutrality, and dared to launch the campaign to stop the US government from censoring the internet and limiting users communication with each other. Because of Aaron making SOPA /PIPA known to the public, internet users rallied together to conduct online protests defeating the passing of SOPA/PIPA and therefore protecting and keeping the internet as a neutral, uncensored, free and safe communication system. As a result, Aaron, sentenced to 35 years in jail, ended up dead in a jail cell (allegedly suicided) as a result of the charges the US government made against him. (4.), (5.) He was only 29 years old.
The Rise of the Hackavists!
The history of the internet was destined to continue to be controversial. In 2003, Anonymous came into being, by 2012, the cyber-hackvist group would be named among one of the One Hundred Most Influential people by Time magazine. (6.) Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, also facing 35 years and enduring long isolation/solitary confinement sessions of which he faces even a longer harsher series of tortures and more jail time for attempting suicide (7.) Chelsea finds herself in prison for leaking information to WikiLeaks, founded in 2006, co-founded by front man Australian born Julian Assange.(8.) Julian, also is a highly controversial character; he currently resides as a guest at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, due to allegations by the US that by receiving and releasing documents and the information therein, Wikileaks has caused the deaths of countless people and has committed treason by putting US operations in jeopardy. These allegations have been decided by the UN as unfounded. (9.) Still, the US has not relinquished the charges and therefore Mr. Assange is still residing in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. While there several actors from outside the embassy allegedly with ties to the CIA have tried to assassinate Mr. Assange. The latest attempt assassination attempt was just this last August of 2016 (10.) after Hillary Clinton's strategist calls on Tv "illegally kill the son of a bitch." (11.) Due to Mr. Assange's connection with Edward Snowden, who formerly worked for the CIA/NSA who came to realize that the US government's operation systems were spying on its own citizens which is supposed to be illegal but given a pass under the guise of "hunting" terrorists, Mr. Snowden, turned over his findings to Wikileaks and has since been living in assylum in Russia.
Sticky Wickets
Other instances of hacking have been China hacking into Sony Pictures computer systems. And as of late, the DNC has been hacked twice with the emails being sent to Wikileaks and finally released to the public. Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton has been investigated and questioned many times over her usage of the internet, devices and especially using a personalized server at her home instead of a secure server provided by the White House among other violations of protocol even as far as destroying Blackberry devices with a hammer and losing or misplacing phones and Blackberries.
Each one of these examples demonstrates the internet is a tricky world or cyberverse if you will to navigate and so are such crimes as catfishing, baiting, identity theft, on line predatory behavior, cyber stalking, cyber bullying, child pornography just to name a few more cyber crimes.
However, this is not what Obama chose to address using his most powerful man on earth executive orders powers. Instead, he chose to use his executive power to sign an agreement between the ICANN and the United States to end a contract that has currently as of now, which has lasted nearly twenty (20) years, yet now will end Sept 30, 2016, thereby giving over every one who is a member of the internet their IP and personal information to possibly the UN saying that if the UN agrees to accepting to house ICANN then our personal IPs and addresses and the internet itself will be safe.
Each one of these examples demonstrates the internet is a tricky world or cyberverse if you will to navigate and so are such crimes as catfishing, baiting, identity theft, on line predatory behavior, cyber stalking, cyber bullying, child pornography just to name a few more cyber crimes.
However, this is not what Obama chose to address using his most powerful man on earth executive orders powers. Instead, he chose to use his executive power to sign an agreement between the ICANN and the United States to end a contract that has currently as of now, which has lasted nearly twenty (20) years, yet now will end Sept 30, 2016, thereby giving over every one who is a member of the internet their IP and personal information to possibly the UN saying that if the UN agrees to accepting to house ICANN then our personal IPs and addresses and the internet itself will be safe.
Snopes is the authoritative last word! -NOT!!!
So if Obama is not actually giving the UN the internet as Snopes says (12) then what is the big deal?
Everyone's IP and personal information is held in a data base which is like a phone book for the internet. The "phone book" is called the DNS (Domain Name System). The DNS is controlled by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) which currently is a non profit entity controlled by NTIA (the US Commerce Department National Telecommunications and Information Administration). As of Oct 1, 2016, ICANN will be released from NTIA to be answerable to multiple stakeholders world wide such as countries, businesses and other entities within the tech world. Discussion is also being make that the UN oversee ICANN in order to keep ICANN and therefore the DNS centralized. We are assured by NTIA's director Lawrence Strickland that the nearly 4 billion users of the internet will be virtually unaffected. (13.) It is expected that the move of the DNS to ICANN, which for now is still a California based company, will gain the US some points as a globalist market team player. (14.)
Yet, the question is now of the transition that ICANN is seeking from becoming a non profit entity based in California still primarily under the US juristidiction to that of one that is multi-national. Currently there is a multinational advisory board called GAB (Government Advisory Board). They only have authority to advise. The location of ICANN offices determines many factors. And there in is the rub, it is not just a matter of ICANN now having oversite of DNS. It is where will ICANN be housed, that will determine the following:
Everyone's IP and personal information is held in a data base which is like a phone book for the internet. The "phone book" is called the DNS (Domain Name System). The DNS is controlled by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) which currently is a non profit entity controlled by NTIA (the US Commerce Department National Telecommunications and Information Administration). As of Oct 1, 2016, ICANN will be released from NTIA to be answerable to multiple stakeholders world wide such as countries, businesses and other entities within the tech world. Discussion is also being make that the UN oversee ICANN in order to keep ICANN and therefore the DNS centralized. We are assured by NTIA's director Lawrence Strickland that the nearly 4 billion users of the internet will be virtually unaffected. (13.) It is expected that the move of the DNS to ICANN, which for now is still a California based company, will gain the US some points as a globalist market team player. (14.)
Yet, the question is now of the transition that ICANN is seeking from becoming a non profit entity based in California still primarily under the US juristidiction to that of one that is multi-national. Currently there is a multinational advisory board called GAB (Government Advisory Board). They only have authority to advise. The location of ICANN offices determines many factors. And there in is the rub, it is not just a matter of ICANN now having oversite of DNS. It is where will ICANN be housed, that will determine the following:
- Legal sanctions applicable to changes in the root zone (for instance, what happens if a country under US sanctions requests a change to the root zone file?)
- Law applicable to resolution of contractual disputes with registries, registrars, etc.
- Law applicable to labour disputes.
- Law applicable to competition / antitrust law that applies to ICANN policies and regulations.
- Law applicable to disputes regarding ICANN decisions, such as allocation of gTLDs, or non-renewal of a contract.
- Law applicable to consumer protection concerns.
- Law applicable to financial transparency of the organization.
- Law applicable to corporate condition of the organization, including membership rights.
- Law applicable to data protection-related policies & regulations.
- Law applicable to trademark and other speech-related policies & regulations.
- Law applicable to legal sanctions imposed by a country against another. (15.)
So while agencies and groups in the United States are telling Congress to sue the President, and countries around the world who approve of the transaction and are saying, "Finally! We have only been waiting for nearly 20 years!", What are we who maybe on the fence, perhaps leery or in full alert to do? One just may consider a decentralized database such as BitLanders.com or Simbiot.io which uses "block chain" technology. (16.)
Some of my activist friends are opting to remain as they are; some are frantically backing up all their articles and files in anticipation that what ever government entity that ICANN lands on or under will be disappearing large portions of the internet or even their own accounts; still others are turning to HAM (AM) radio and going back to the days of before the internet. The only problem with the later is that our global mail system, delivery and transportation systems are still on a digital/internet infrastructure.
No matter what you decide to do in order to protect your privacy, your rights and your data and meta data IF YOU ARE IN THE UNITED STATES CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND CONGRESSMAN AND LET YOUR VOICE GO ON RECORD. Yes, most likely this is a done deal and will go through, but we do not know that for certain. SO LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD. THERE IS STILL TIME TO STOP THIS.
To the president's office
Call the President
PHONE NUMBERS
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
TTY/TTD
Comments: 202-456-6213
Visitor's Office: 202-456-2121
www.whitehouse.gov
I am interested in hearing your thoughts, opinions and plans on this matter. Feel free to leave a comment below or message onceuponaneden@gmail.com
Love and Blessings to you and yours
Michelle Carmela
(1.) http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-address
(2.) http://www.wired.com/2012/12/queen-and-the-internet/
(3.) http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-invented-the-internet
(4.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCwjDuoJK0E
(5.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz
(6.)http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2111975_2111976_2112122,00.html
(7.) http://www.democracynow.org/2016/8/3/chelsea_manning_faces_indefinite_solitary_confinement
(8.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0
(9.) https://justice4assange.com/UN-Working-Group-on-Arbitrary.html
(10.) http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/08/22/questions-potential-asassination-attempt-attempted-break/
(11.) http://thefreethoughtproject.com/illegally-clinton-assange-assassinate/
(12.) http://www.snopes.com/2016/08/19/america-to-hand-off-internet/
(13.) http://www.techworm.net/2016/08/united-states-to-handover-dns-system-from-october-1-2016.html
(14.) http://www.techrepublic.com/article/us-will-hand-over-dns-supervision-to-icann-lessening-its-control-of-the-naming-system/
(15.) http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/jurisdiction-the-taboo-topic-at-icann
(16.) http://blockstrap.com/en/a-complete-beginners-guide-to-blockchain-technology/
(2.) http://www.wired.com/2012/12/queen-and-the-internet/
(3.) http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-invented-the-internet
(4.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCwjDuoJK0E
(5.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz
(6.)http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2111975_2111976_2112122,00.html
(7.) http://www.democracynow.org/2016/8/3/chelsea_manning_faces_indefinite_solitary_confinement
(8.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0
(9.) https://justice4assange.com/UN-Working-Group-on-Arbitrary.html
(10.) http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/08/22/questions-potential-asassination-attempt-attempted-break/
(11.) http://thefreethoughtproject.com/illegally-clinton-assange-assassinate/
(12.) http://www.snopes.com/2016/08/19/america-to-hand-off-internet/
(13.) http://www.techworm.net/2016/08/united-states-to-handover-dns-system-from-october-1-2016.html
(14.) http://www.techrepublic.com/article/us-will-hand-over-dns-supervision-to-icann-lessening-its-control-of-the-naming-system/
(15.) http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/jurisdiction-the-taboo-topic-at-icann
(16.) http://blockstrap.com/en/a-complete-beginners-guide-to-blockchain-technology/