Internet
(held on 19th October 2011)
MVV59K Software Law
2 Lecturer
Mgr. Jaromír Šavelka
Institute of Law and Technology
Faculty of Law
Masaryk University
Room no. s61 (office hours Mon 12:00 – 13:30)
Email: jaromir.savelka@law.muni.cz
Phone: +420 549 495 377
3
THE CONTROL OVER THE
INTERNET
Internet and Free Speech
4 The Control over the Internet
Overview
• Introduction to the history and workings of
the Internet
• „Golden Age“ of the Internet and its end
(beginnings of the World Wide Web)
• „Silver Age“ of the Internet (beginnings of
the Internet Regulation)
• Future –„Age of Steel“ at the Internet?
5 History of the Internet
„The applications of science have built man a
well-supplied house, and are teaching him to
live healthily therein. They have enabled him to
throw masses of people against one another
with cruel weapons. They may yet allow him
truly to encompass the great record and to
grow in the wisdom of race experience.“
Vannevar Bush, As WeMay Think (1945)
6 History of the Internet
• First networks appear in the sixties of the
20th century
– Experimental network in Great Britain (1968)
– ARPANET in the USA (1969)
• The development towards nowadays
Internet follows
– TCP/IP protocol (idea from 1973)
– DNS (1984)
– WWW (the proposal published in 1989)
7 History of the Internet
• The Internet as we know it appears after
1993
– Graphical browser MOSAIC (1992)
– Netscape Communications (1993)
– Netscape Navigator (1994)
• Commercialization and wide introduction
of the Internet
– more then a billion of users (2006)
8 Workings of the Internet
• Global system of interconnected
computer networks
• TCP/IP, WWW, e-mail, DNS
9 History of the Internet
„The golden age was first; when man, yet new,
no rule but uncorrupted reason knew,
and, with a native bent, did good pursue.
Unforced by punishment, unawed by fear,
his words were simple, and his soul sincere;
Needless was written law, where none oppressed;
The law of man was written in his breast!“
Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses
10 The Golden Age of the Internet
John Perry Barlow (USA)
11 The Golden Age of the Internet
• John Perry Barlow
– An advocate of separate legal regime for the
Internet
– Has popularized Internet
– A co-founder of Electronic Frontier Foundation
(EFF)
– Has initiated the opposition agains
„Communications Decency Act“
– A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace
12 The Golden Age of the Internet
„Communication Decency Act …
… is unconstitutional!
13 The Golden Age of the Internet
Jon Postel
Vint Cerf
14 The Golden Age of the Internet
• „Founding fathers“ of the Internet – Larry
Roberts, Robert Kahn, Vint Cerf, Jon
Postel, Dave Clark
– Academic workers sponsored by the government – engineers
that have been given a task to create Internet
– Authors of TCP/IP, SMTP
– The originality of the Internet lies in its open, minimalistic and
neutral nature
– Internet Enginneering Task Force (IETF)
– Decisions based on consensus
15 The Golden Age of the Internet
At the end of the eighties it was widely
believed that the Internet has got a potential
to erase national borders and substantially
weaken the position of national
governments.
16 History of the Internet
„Succeeding times a silver age behold, (…)
Then summer, autumn, winter did appear;
And spring was but a season of the year; (…)
And shivering mortals, into houses driven, (…)
And oxen laboured first beneath the yoke.“
Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses
17 The Silver Age of the Internet
• The key point regarding the control of
Internet is the management of DNS
Servers (Internet Naming and Numbering
Authority; root authority)
– http://74.125.87.99/ = http://www.google.cz/
– A domain name can be of incredible value
18 The Silver Age of the Internet
• Initially the management of DNS servers had
been in the hands of the „founding fathers“
– Jon Postel
• Since 1990 the authority is shared with
Network Solutions Inc. (NSI) – it is
necessary to pay for a domain name!
• The Internet turns into something the
„founding fathers“ have never wanted it to be
=> they struggle to regain full control
19 The Silver Age of the Internet
• The leader of the efforts – Vint Cerf
– Internet Society (ISOC)
– International Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC)
– General TopLevel Domain Memorandum of
Understanding (gTLD-MoU) – „MoUvement“
– International Council of Registrars (CORE)
20 The Silver Age of the Internet
Ira Magaziner
21 The Silver Age of the Internet
• Ira Magaziner
– Assembled a team of negotiators and persuaded
Vinton Cerf to give up MoUvement
– Regularly visited IETF assemblies and eventually
stopped MoUvement for good => CORE has not
become the DNS authority
22 The Silver Age of the Internet
28th January1998
Hello.
As the Internet develops there are transitions in the
management arrangements. The time has come to také a
small step in one of those transitions. At some point on down
the road it will be appropriate for the Root domain to be edited
and published directly by the IANA.
As a small step in this direction we would like to have the
secondaries for the Root domain pull the Root zone (by zone
transfer)directly from IANA’s own name server.
This is „DNSROOT.IANA.ORG“ with address 198.32.1.98.
(…)
-jon.
23 The Silver Age of the Internet
• Ira Magaziner calls Postel and informs
him about the illegality of the deed
• Postel claims it is just a test
• Within several days the authority is
returned to the servers within the control
of USA
• Similar „test“ would be considered a
crimminal offence in the future
• Jon Postel dies within 9 months
24 The Silver Age of the Internet
Jon Postel
(„God of the Internet“)
25 ICANN
• Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers
– New „root authority“
– The control remained within the USA, but routine
administrative tasks performed by ICANN
– Opposition from Europe => an authority to over
trade mark disputes transfered to WIPO
26 ICANN
27 ICANN
• ICANN was able to accomplish for what it
was initially set up:
– Decentralization of domain names assignment
– Substantial reduction of registration fees
– An effective systém of trade mark disputes
– No disturbances regarding the Internet
28 ICANN
• The actual control over the Internet
belongs to USA
• UN struggles for the control, but
unsuccessfully
• The importance of the Internet is growing
29 National Borders Penetrate into the
Internet
• Grounds for the Internet „divide“
– Languages
– Geographical areas
– Commerce – distribution of goods
• Geolocation
– „Choose your country“
– Tracing packet – a list of computers visited on the way
– 99 % probability of correctness
30 Presence and the Future
„Hard steel succeeded then;
And stubborn as the metal were the men.
Truth, modesty, and shame, the world forsook;
Fraud, avarice, and force, their places took. (…)
Then landmarks limited to each his right;
For all before was common as a light.“
PubliusOvidius Naso, Metamorphoses
Thank you for your
attention!
(jaromir.savelka@law.muni.cz)