Fwd: [ NNSquad ] Belarus Is Now Home to the Internet's Most Insane Law

[Alex Gakuru]

Greetings Nuno,

You are right! I guess to free myself of dissapointments to enjoy 2012
shall continue engaging, "hope for the best, expect the worst and take
whatever comes." Happy New Year to you and everyone.

>From here deep down in free expression hostile trenches,

Sincerely yours,

Alex

On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 12:45 AM, Nuno Garcia <ngarcia at ngarcia.net> wrote:

> Hi Alex.
>
> Indeed there are too many questions in these two issues. The first one is
> related to the narrow-sightnedness of law makers in these countries. Using
> an analogy, data and information are a lot like water - you need to control
> it (so you can use it for the right purposes), but if you lock it too
> tight, it will somehow find an escape route.
>
> I am very concerned that the example from Belarus may inspire other
> countries into doing the same.
>
> And the same reasoning is applicable to SOPA and PIPA, I think.
>
> These schemes are all but an invitation to build an underground Internet.
>
> Imagine you are in the US and you need to access a forbidden site. Say you
> type www.pirata101.org (to use the portuguese word for pirate). Your
> browser will tell you "Ops! BrowserX could not find www.pirata101.org"
> because it searched the DNS tree and the answer was that this name is not
> registered.
>
> But imagine that alongside with this, your browser does also tell you
> "Would you like me to try the alternative DNS database?" and answering yes,
> you would end up looking the name in an completely independent DNS system.
> It would not even had to have the same syntax. It could be something like
> www-pirata101-org or www~pirata101~global or whatever string you fancy to
> use (check http://www.dashworlds.com/).
>
> You would use the browser as an intermediate DNS broker, placing queries
> that could be answered by the software of the browser manufacturer, in the
> cloud, somewhere where your lawmakers could not get their teeth at. Your
> standard TCP/IP protocols would still be able to work because for these
> what really matters is the IP address (IPv4 or IPv6 address) of the end
> machine. And, in the event of the country firewall blocking the IP address
> (like many corporate firewalls do), even then, the content could be
> transmitted through changing IPs (not too hard to do in the IPv6 space) or
> though a general purpose gateway somewhere in the cloud.
>
> I tried to talk about this sometime ago - I sincerely believe that the
> fate of ICANN and of the DNS structure relies in the hands of the browser
> manufacturers or, in the hand of software developers who can build
> extensions that circumvent or complement the current DNS query system.
>
> For me it boils down to this: if politicians and lobbies try to control
> (own) the Internet like they seem to be so eager to do, this will happen
> sooner or later. Let me give you a hint: every rookie knows that if you
> want to find a movie to download, Google is not the place to start looking
> for it.
>
> Now, we are on the verge of disrupting the Internet status quo. I'm not
> sure if this is good or bad in itself, but, it will surely be a whole lot
> different.
>
> Getting back to Alex's question: in Africa, as well in developping
> countries (I've been teaching a PhD course in Addis Ababa last year - what
> an enriching experience!), using a free and coherent Internet is a powerful
> tool for development (I can't even imagine what is the idea on the Belarus
> politicians' heads). I remember my early college days - we used a pirate
> copy of Borland's Turbo Pascal (sorry Borland, than you for that!). And I
> can surely tell you that while I do not advocate for piracy at all, I share
> the thoughts of a policeman who fined me 250 euros last month: "I rather
> see a person in the street selling a counterfeit t-shirt, than see it rob a
> person at the point of a gun". I would add, I would rather see that person
> in a regular job, or in school, but helas, our world is not perfect.
> Sometimes (many times) because of politicians like the ones behind Belarus
> laws and SOPA or PIPA projects.
>
> Warm regards to all, and please enjoy the New Year,
>
> Nuno Garcia
>
>
> On 3 January 2012 20:07, Alex Gakuru <gakuru at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thanks Nuno. Coudn't help reflect on "What does SOPA/PIPA mean for Africa?
>>
>> http://codepolitical.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-sopa-pipa-mean-for-africa.html
>> Regards, Alex.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 9:10 PM, Nuno Garcia <ngarcia at ngarcia.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all.
>>>
>>> Geographically Belarus is part of Europe.
>>>
>>> And these are extremely bad news.
>>>
>>> BR,
>>>
>>> Nuno Garcia
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren at vortex.com>
>>> Date: 3 January 2012 17:54
>>> Subject: [ NNSquad ] Belarus Is Now Home to the Internet's Most Insane
>>> Law
>>> To: nnsquad at nnsquad.org
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Belarus Is Now Home to the Internet's Most Insane Law
>>>
>>> http://j.mp/xIK0Vk  (Gizmodo)
>>>
>>>   "Belarus: small. Proud. Kvass-drinking. A long history of dubious human
>>>    rights and piddling dictatorship. And now, bound to a law that makes
>>>    it illegal to browse foreign websites."
>>>
>>>  - - -
>>>
>>> --Lauren--
>>> NNSquad Moderator
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> nnsquad mailing list
>>> http://lists.nnsquad.org/mailman/listinfo/nnsquad
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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