Re: WTO an even worse possibility as Inet regulator.

Friend, 
 
 
attila@primenet.com did the list a service when he sent his 
message, "WTO an even worse possibility as Inet regulator." 
 
Basing the message "on an article from the (London) Finan- 
cial Times," he states that 
 
   a very credible white paper is circulating for the WTO to 
   establish an internet CZAR to regualate the Internet... 
 
and he asks: 
 
   personally, the Feds and the FCC are bad enough --now 
   they want to have a **global** bureaucracy play god  -??? 
 
 
That 11 29 95 Financial Times newsstory is headlined: 
 
     Global regulator urged for information highway 
 
 
Who's doing the urging? 
 
The Royal Institute of International Telecommunications 
Policy put out a report written by a Shell man and a think- 
tank woman. 
 
As regards encryption, the RIITP people 
 
   ...point out that issues such as...encryption...have global 
   rather than national aspects. 
 
 
Then they contradict themselves: 
   
   "Encryption, for example, raises tricky and emotive issues 
   connected with...national security and cannot be treated 
   simply as a business problem." 
 
 
Whatever works!  They "encrypt" the ultimatums of the New World 
disorder in any...key. 
 
At the very end of the newsstory: 
 
   Global Superhighways, Chatham House, 10 St James 
   Square, London SW1Y 4LE 
 
 
I'm guessing Global Superhighways is the title of the RIITP 
report.  As for Chatham House... 
 
  In 1919 [a group of young men who became the dominant 
  influence in British imperial and foreign affairs up to 1939] 
  founded the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham 
  House) for which the chief financial supporters were Sir Abe 
  Bailey and the Astor family (owners of The [London] Times). 
  Similar Institutes of International Affairs were established 
  in the chief British dominions and in the United States 
  (where it is known as the Council on Foreign Relations). 
 
    --Carroll Quigley [Clinton's mentor].  Tragedy and Hope. 
      A History of the World in Our Time.  Macmillan, 1966. 
      P 132. 
 
 
RIITP is probably a front for RIIA.  I conjecture, though, that 
the real publisher of the report has his house in Washington. 
 
I agree with jamesd@echeque.com who writes: 
 
        The main threat to freedom is still internal, 
                    rather than external. 
 
 
Looked at from the inside, of course. 
 
 
Cordially, 
 
Jim

Oh dear.  First off, it's the "Royal Institute of International Affairs"

Second, I haven't read or seen the report although I ordered it yesterday.

Third....<disclosure>...I am a Foreign Associate of RIIA...</disclosure>. 
They do nice seminars in a nice part of London near where I once worked.

Fourth, RIIA is a think tank, that is part of the UK establishment but not
part of the government, much like Brookings, Hoover Institution, Council
on Foreign Relations, are in the U.S.  It doesn't speak for the UK
government, and sometimes criticizes it (usually politely).  It doesn't
necessarily speak for business, although it certainly speaks *to* it and 
about it.

Fifth, that doesn't mean the report is right.  Or necessarily influential.
RIIA issues lots of reports, several a month, and most sink without a
visible trace.  But some don't.  So, it could be influential.  Especially
in the UK.  Depends how good/scary it is. I'll report if my copy ever gets
here.  With the Xmas mails, I figure January at best. 

A. Michael Froomkin        | +1 (305) 284-4285; +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax)
Associate Professor of Law | 
U. Miami School of Law     | froomkin@law.miami.edu
P.O. Box 248087            | http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin
Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA | It's warm here.