Fergie's Tech Blog

Vint Cerf: Government Control of Internet Failing

Via TVNZ.co.nz.

Attempts by governments to create a controlling agency for the internet are likely to fail, Dr Vint Cerf, one of the founding fathers of the World Wide Web, said.

In an interview on the sidelines of a United Nations-led forum on internet governance in Rio de Janeiro, Cerf, 64, said the fact that the web is almost entirely privately owned is a major obstacle to such control.

The forum discussed issues like the fight against child pornography and Internet security as well as the possible establishment of an intergovernmental body to coordinate such efforts.

"It's tempting to think that you need a United Nations-like structure to deal with it," Cerf said.

"I believe it will be very hard to accomplish that objective for one simple reason - 99% of the internet, the physical internet, is in private sector hands, operated by the private sector," he said, defending a different governance structure made up of multiple stakeholders.

posted by Fergie @ 11/14/2007 11:54:00 AM