[discuss] [governance] NTIA statement

Mon Mar 17 21:35:59 UTC 2014

You've been watching too much Fox News.  I don't think "American business interests" are "lining up to oppose this."  As with many other issues, there is a diversity of responses in the business community.  Some oppose it, some are wary, some accept it with appropriate oversight and an acceptable outcome.  Some have no idea that this is even going on.

As for Newt Gingrich, I suppose he's a politician, though he hasn't held elected office in almost 15 years.  At this point, he's really more of a well-coiffed "talking head."  He has the same right as every other American to say ridiculous, inflammatory, uninformed things.  He and related Tea Party types might be able to stir the pot for a while, but that all in the nature of things here.  "Giving away the Internet" is just too good a sound bite to pass up.  They'll move on to something more likely to bring in the donations soon enough, if they haven't already.  His ilk return to this from time to time, when something flares up or the other issues get tired.  I expect that (as with business interests), more politicians will be wary or accepting with reservations, and want to see where the process goes, rather than outright opposed.

If the NTIA uses "Snowden" as cover ex post facto, that's "politics as usual."  That's not the same thing as an excuse for starting the transition in the first place.

Greg Shatan

-----Original Message-----
From: Pranesh Prakash [mailto:pranesh at cis-india.org]
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2014 5:21 PM
To: Shatan, Gregory S.; "Kleinwächter, Wolfgang"; Adiel Akplogan; Seun Ojedeji
Cc: 1 Net List; Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus - IGC
Subject: Re: [discuss] [governance] NTIA statement

Shatan, Gregory S. <GShatan at ReedSmith.com> [2014-03-17 17:14:05]:
> I don't think the US needed a convenient excuse for the transition.  Pretty much the opposite -- this was a pragmatic response to an inconvenient set of circumstances.

Snowden allows the NTIA to be a bit more helpless than it otherwise would have been when folks like Newt Gingrich and other American politicians come baying for its blood backed by the American business interests that are lining up to oppose this.

--
Pranesh Prakash
Policy Director, Centre for Internet and Society
T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org
-------------------
Access to Knowledge Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School
M: +1 520 314 7147 | W: http://yaleisp.org PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: https://twitter.com/pranesh_prakash

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