Re: [soac-mapo] Background info?

[Konstantinos Komaitis <k.komaitis@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I would also like to encourage such postings in this group. What Evan has just 
posted clearly manifests the sensitivity of the issue and the fact that MAPO 
rationalizations are very subjective and highly dependant upon national and 
cultural understandings. It is for this reason I believe our next steps have to 
be very careful and well-considered.

Best

Konstantinos


On 26/08/2010 19:47, "Robin Gross" <robin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Thanks, Evan.  I find these resources very helpful and support the notion that 
we should take into account what is actually happening to defend sensitivities 
in our deliberations.

Best,
Robin


On Aug 26, 2010, at 10:23 AM, 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 
<http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/08/internet_censorship_russia>  on 
such blocking efforts in Russia and this report from the OpenNet Initiative 
<http://opennet.net/studies/uae>  on a variety of blocking tactics in place in 
the United Arab Emirates -- some of which block based on TLD.

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.

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






IP JUSTICE
Robin Gross, Executive Director
1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA  94117  USA
p: +1-415-553-6261    f: +1-415-462-6451
w: http://www.ipjustice.org     e: robin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx