Both China and India account for about 40+% of the entire world's population.
Both countries have a tremendous amount of talent and market potential to rival that
of the United States in the forseeable future.China's latest move regarding its
involvement with the internet has probably sent a shock wave of a chill up the spine
of ICANN (not to mention Verisign). I hope so, for why on Earth should they
begin to think that we understand their culture and needs better than they do.
Shame on ICANN, Versign, and the U.S. Department of Commerce for even thinking that
they could pull the wool over the eyes of the Chinese government. Perhaps the
Chinese government pulled a page from the book of the IOD supporters and told these
institutions where to stick it. Good for China!
If ICANN wishes to expand
its protectionist umbrella over the globe under the guise of benevolence(?), then
shouldn't all the countries impacted by such decisions have fair representation on
ICANN's Board with regards to such foreign policy? I think so. How else
is ICANN better able to serve(?) it's constituencies if it doesn't have a finger
on the pulse of such countries? Should there be taxation without fair representation?
Absolutely not!!! Let's hope that India will follow China's lead and send a
loud and clear message to ICANN, "Clean up your act, or you will be out of a job!!!
Provided
below are additional excerpts from a very interesting article.
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New York, NY November 30, 2000 (ICB TOLL FREE NEWS)
The introduction of Chinese domain names on the Internet is threatening the universality
at the heart of the Web, says a story in today's Wall Street Journal.
Will China's
desire to control Internet use splinter the Web?
"In protecting Chinese domain
names, most important is protecting the country's interests and defending the national
culture," Chen Yin, an official at the Ministry of Information Industries, said recently
in explaining the move.
Until now, only English has been used for domain names.
That has meant a seamless global Internet in which all names ending in ".com," ".org,"
and ".net," for example, are registered with Verisign. But the company's new effort
to move into foreign languages, which it initially trumpeted as a bid to make the
Internet more multicultural, has morphed into a trade war with a techno-twist that
could splinter the Internet into competing universes.
Efforts at reconciliation
have so far come to naught. In talks earlier this year with Chinese officials, Verisign
executives were shocked when officials said they regarded Verisign's new business
as an infringement on Chinese sovereignty. "They said, 'We control the Chinese language',"
says Verisign's Mr. Chovnick. "How do we deal with that? There's no legal precedent."