Re: [soac-mapo] Background info?

[William Drake <william.drake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi

On Aug 26, 2010, at 7:23 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> I'm not totally sure that the posting of background information or relevant 
> news stories here is welcomed or frowned upon, but to me it may help with the 
> discussion to know what is already happening.
> 
> By this I mean the existing practices of governments using Internet 
> infrastructure to block access to sites with objectionable content based on 
> names or IP addresses. For example there is this article from The Economist 
> on such blocking efforts in Russia and this report from the OpenNet 
> Initiative on a variety of blocking tactics in place in the United Arab 
> Emirates -- some of which block based on TLD.

Just a FWIW, ONI has published 2 books in a series I edit for the MIT Press and 
is now working on a third focused on Asia.  If you follow some links to the 
book site http://www.access-controlled.net/contact/ you'll find a couple of 
nice synthesis pieces on new forms of access control, e.g. Ron and Rafal's 
chapter on Beyond Denial: Introducing Next Generation Information Access 
Controls, plus more country profiles.
> 
> Is it of value to this group to attempt to collect such information? To me, 
> we can't ignore what's already being done in the real world, and any efforts 
> we make will need to complement -- or at least recognize -- existing 
> practice. Trying to dismiss, ignore or regulate existing government action 
> seems pointless and indeed counter-productive. It's clear that measures by 
> national governments to filter/ban domains with objectionable content already 
> exist, and it's important to our efforts (IMO) to determine how our proposals 
> here will actually affect such efforts without doing damage to other policy 
> priorities.

Agree
> 
> Of course, if there is a consensus that such news items and background info 
> will not help, I'll stop sending them. I have no intention to be disruptive.
> 
> - Evan
> 

***********************************************************
William J. Drake
Senior Associate
Centre for International Governance
Graduate Institute of International and
 Development Studies
Geneva, Switzerland
william.drake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.graduateinstitute.ch/cig/drake.html
www.linkedin.com/in/williamjdrake
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