----- Original Message -----
From: Sasha Costanza-Chock <schock@riseup.net>
> Read the letter that won the internet governance battle
> By Kieren McCarthy
> Published Friday 2nd December 2005 09:07 GMT
>
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/02/rice_eu_letter/print.html
>
> The World Summit in Tunis last month was overshadowed by the global
> argument over internet governance.
>
> Its biggest controversy came with the proposition put forward by the EU
> a month earlier that there be a new inter-governmental body that oversee
> ICANN. The US government - which currently enjoys unilateral control
> over the internet infrastructure - was furious and launched an enormous
> lobbying campaign, both public and private, across the board to retain
> its position.
> Click Here
>
> Most significant among all those lobbying efforts was a letter sent from
> the US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to the UK foreign minister
> Jack Straw acting in the role of presidency of the EU.
>
> In the letter, Rice used strong language for a diplomatic missive, to
> stress how seriously the US administration was taking the issue and how
> determined it was to retain ICANN in overall charge of the internet.
> European diplomats privately confessed that the letter had a significant
> impact on their position.
>
> The result was that the EU never raised its inter-governmental forum
> again in World Summit meetings, and the end agreement stuck with the US
> position.
>
> This is the first time time the full text of that letter has been published:
>
> 7 November 2005
>
> To:
>
> The Right Honourable Jack Straw MP, Secretary of State for Foreign and
> Commonwealth Affairs, London
>
> Dear Foreign Secretary,
>
> The governance structure and continued stability and sustainability of
> the Internet are of paramount importance to the United States. The
> Internet has become an essential infrastructure for global
> communications, including for global trade and commerce, and therefore
> we firmly believe that support for the present structures for Internet
> governance is vital. These structures have proven to be a reliable
> foundation for the robust growth of the Internet we have seen over the
> course of the last decade.
>
> As we approach the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), we
> should underscore the vast potential of the Internet for global economic
> expansion, poverty alleviation, and for improving health, education and
> other public services, particularly in the developing world where
> Internet access remain unacceptably low.
>
> The Internet will reach its full potential as a medium and facilitator
> for global economic expansion and development in an environment free
> from burdensome intergovernmental oversight and control. The success of
> the Internet lies in its inherently decentralized nature, with the most
> significant growth taking place at the outer edges of the network
> through innovative new applications and services. Burdensome,
> bureaucratic oversight is out of place in an Internet structure that has
> worked so well for many around the globe. We regret the recent positions
> on Internet governance(i.e., the $BEO(Bew cooperation model”) offered by the
> European Union, the Presidency of which is currently held by the United
> Kingdom, seems to propose just that - a new structure of
> intergovernmental control over the Internet.
>
> The four principles the United States issues on June 30, 2005, reinforce
> the continuing U.S. commitment to the Internet$BCT(B security and stability,
> including through the historical U.S. role in authorizing changes or
> modifications to the authoritative root zone file. At that time, we also
> expressed our support for ICANN as the appropriate private sector
> technical coordinator of the Internet$BCT(B domain name and addressing
> system. We believe that ICANN is dedicated to achieving broad
> representation of global Internet communities and to developing policy
> through consensus-based processes. We have also expressed our interest
> in working with the international community to address legitimate public
> policy and sovereignty concerns with respect to country code top-level
> domains (ccTLD). We wish to underscore that, in our statement of June
> 30, we supported ongoing dialogue on issues related to Internet
> governance across international forums.
>
> The United States and the European Union have long worked together
> toward the goal of global access to the Internet. The WSIS offers us the
> opportunity to reaffirm our partnership to spread the benefits of the
> Internet globally. At the same time, the security and stability of the
> Internet are essential to the United States, the European Union, and to
> the world. We firmly believe that the existing Internet system balances
> the stability and security we need with the innovation and dynamism that
> private sector leadership provides.
>
> The history of the Internet$BCT(B extraordinary growth and adaptation ,
> based on private-sector innovation and investment, offers compelling
> arguments against burdening the network with a new intergovernmental
> structure for oversight. It also suggests that a new intergovernmental
> structure would most likely become an obstacle to global Internet access
> for all our citizens. It is in this spirit that we ask the European
> Union to reconsider its new position on Internet governance and work
> together with us to bring the benefits of the Information Society to all.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Carlos M. Guiterrez Secretary of Commerce
>
> Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State
> Related link
>
> US wins net governance battle
> (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/16/us_wins_net_governance/)