[ih] Fwd: [IP] EFF calls for signatures from Internet Engineers against censorship

[Dave CROCKER]

On 12/19/2011 6:33 AM, Vint Cerf wrote:
> These people have NO CLUE how the Internet works. I am particularly
> unhappy with the fact that this amendment comes from Bob Goodlatte.


(Lack of clue appears to be common in these types of policy activities. Note 
that it's difficult for non-techies to know the technical details of a complex, 
large-scale service.  In the run-up to ICANN formation, there was a US Gov't 
cross-agency working group trying to formulate recommendations for the future 
handling of Internet registration issues -- that is, the stuff that is now 
covered by ICANN.  I was on the IAHC, a committee active at the time to 
formulate a proposal for new gTLDs.  So we met with the cross-agency committee 
repeatedly.  They met for about a year and towards the end I discovered that 
none of the members actually understood DNS technology.  We quickly organized a 
tutorial by Mockapetris, Vixie, etc.  I have no idea how much that helped...)


It occurs to me that it might be helpful to formulate a non-technical 
description of the technical details that are being mandated.  That is, 
formulate a statement by technical experts that describe the specific changes in 
Internet operation and use that would be required by SOPA. The formulation would 
target a non-technical audience.

The open letter that was signed by 83 folk was generic.  It was a statement 
against policy by a collection of long-time techies, but it had no specifics.

I'm suggesting a follow-on that would be a little like a product data-sheet, in 
that it would define specific usage and functional changes, and could also be 
signed by technical experts.  The existing open letter was an opinion letter. 
This would be a factual letter.

d/
-- 

   Dave Crocker
   Brandenburg InternetWorking
   bbiw.net