On 2 Jun 2011, at 10:20, Gert Doering wrote:
On Wed, Jun 01, 2011 at 10:11:10PM +0000, Sascha Luck wrote:
the fact that NCC had a happy-clappy "very cordial" meeting with SOCA (yes, the Internet is Serious and Organised Crime in the UK) makes me wonder.
About what Sacha? Do you think it's a Bad Idea for the NCC to engage with law enforcement and have a good relationship with them? If so, why? FYI SOCA currently has responsibility for dealing with computer crime in the UK. From a practical point of view, this is very helpful. For example, there's a single point of contact and a clear process to follow, both for the NCC and the cops. The NCC doesn't have to deal with local UK law enforcement or figure out if a request from Detective Sherlock Holmes of Strathclyde Police is genuine or not. We've also had SOCA come to the co-op WG at RIPE meetings a few times, something we should welcome and encourage because that helps develop mutual understanding. I wish other LEAs would do this too.
One of the tasks the NCC is mandated by the NCC members to do is "make sure that the governments of our region understands how the Internet works, how Internet self-regulation works, and that it's better to leave us alone". This is why those good people attend ITU meetings, meet with LEAs, etc. - to make sure those "political accidents" that everybody is afraid of do *not* happen.
Exactly!
There's serious dangers here, like "why should a private entity be allowed to rule address governance in Europe? The european commission and the national governments are much better suited to do that!" - and the NCC works togethe with these folks to make them see that our way *works* and we need no extra regulation...
I'd express this a little more diplomatically Gert. [What?! Me diplomatic?! :-)] By engaging with governments, regulators and LEAs, we can show how their concerns about the usual public interest things -- fairness, transparency, consumer confidence, monopoly considerations, etc -- are being addressed and that the mechanisms which are in place are satisfactory to deal with those issues. Followups on this thread probably should move to the co-op WG list.