Hi Michael, The issue of email spam is a sideshow to the important battle in this debate, which involves other governments trying to grab control of what is called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. As USA Today says in an editorial today, "ICANN is little more than a technical coordinator with an internationally diverse board of directors. For the past seven years, under a system Postel [the late Jon Postel, who was instrumental in setting up the Internet] helped shape, it has assigned Internet addresses and made sure the vital infrastructure functions." The corporation makes the Internet work, and it generally works well. The editorial continues, "authoritarian regemes" fear the power the Internet gives citizens and want to seize control. Oddly enough, after I sent my post, I came upon this editorial, which also repeates the ancient saying about not fixing stuff that ain't broke. I do agree that more regulation of certain aspects should be imposed, for example, in the cases of as child porn and spam. So yes, you're right, it isn't that nothing needs adjustment. Certain aspects ARE "broke." But the basic freedom represented by the Internet needs to be protected, and turning it over to the United Nations would be one of the very worst thing we could do to it. Anyone who understands the UN's disgusting role in Bosnia -- particulary Srebrencia in 1995 -- would NOT trust the UN with anything important. The Internet is important. I went to Bosnia-Herzegovina about three years after the 1995 atrocities and I have researched the subject a bit. Just type the words "Srebrencia and UN" into a search engine and see what comes up -- if you think your stomach can stand it. -- thanks, Joe

Let's see here... We have mail protocols that allow return addresses to be spoofed so that there's no clear way to determine if incoming mail is real, simple spam, or a security problem. Over half of email traffic is spam. We have no quick ways to protect servers from denial of service attacks. Many users spend a good amount of their time and money attempting to protect themselves from viruses and spyware.

So who says it ain't broke?

...

From what I've heard, the U.S. is standing firm against a takeover. This is a classic example of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." --

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