
U.N. eyes curbs on Internet anonymity - chaostheory
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10040152-38.html?tag=nl.e703
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mdasen
I feel that as the United States has lost some international status and openly
disregarded the UN, the UN has become co-opted by those who have stayed in the
game (often China, Russia, and right-wing states). As the UN Human Rights
Council gets into defining defaming Islam as against human rights and
countries like China start using the UN to quasi-legalize/justify their
brutality on basic human rights issues, it just seems like the UN has lost its
way.

But maybe I'm naive. Maybe the UN was never meant to live up to its charter or
expectations.

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anamax
The UN's behavior is nothing new - it's pretty much always been this way.

It's the United NATIONS - it is concerned with states and govts, the majority
of which are totalitarian. The individual rights frosting is full of weasel
words and is basically intended to give regimes that kill their citizens the
ability to point to other countries and say "they're doing bad too".

The UN has, however, become more effective at random corruption.

Yes, the UN had some role in reducing smallpox. We can argue about that would
have happened faster and with less cost if the UN hadn't been involved.

Perhaps the UN's greatest sin is that it sets things up so basically decent
countries like the Netherlands become involved in atrocities. Then again, the
Dutch still support the UN, so ....

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miked
It's not just the internet where they want to restrict freedom. The US is now
the only nation that allows over-the-counter sales of natural/herbal
medications without first jumping thru beauracraticatic hoops. Even then
permission is often not granted.

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jrockway
Laws like this will just push _everyone_ into using Tor. There will always be
one country that doesn't sign this, and that's where the Tor nodes will live.
(And AFAIK, running a Tor node in the US isn't a legal liability right now --
common carrier and all that.)

Of course, I suppose that country could be removed from the Internet, but I
think the world governments are too incompetent for that to happen. Another
option is for the UN to make a lot of fake Tor nodes, but I have a feeling
those will be blacklisted in about 30 seconds after their creation.

You can't regulate the Internet -- stop trying.

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Prrometheus
Sadly, few people understand the value of freedom.

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river_styx
OH NOES! No moar 4chan?

