From: "K. N. Cukier" <100736.3602@compuserve.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 1997 05:14:02 +0800
To: Fight Censorship <FIGHT-CENSORSHIP@vorlon.mit.edu>
Subject: Re: Why the White amendment is a good idea (fwd)
Message-ID: <199709251628_MC2-21D3-9A59@compuserve.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Declan McCullagh forwarded the message by...
>From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com> -- who wrote:

>> The NETCenter
>
>What an oxy-maroon. What a self-referent -- not to mention
>self-congratulary -- canard. [...]
>
>Any entity which has the unmitigated presumption to have "center" and
"net"
>in its name demonstrates nothing less than total ignorance  [...]
>
>Reality is not optional. Trying to find the "center" of any piece of the
>net is equivalent to the cosmological "problem" of finding the "center" of
>the universe.
>
>It represents the utter fallacy of hierarchy in a geodesic age.

I take your point insofar as "NETCenter" and crypto, but you repeat a
common misperception. Although the Net is tough to control, and it is a
distributed system of networks, there are -- of course -- a number of
centralized process. The Domain Name System is completely hierarchical.
Moreover, Jon Postel of IANA represents the Net's central authority due to:
1. the IP number allocations, 2. the DNS "root", and 3. the technical
standards, such as port numbers, etc. Unless there was a certain degree of
centralized control, in an engineering perspective, the Net "Would Not
Work." That's the fact, Jack -- n'est-ce pas? Yes, it is *possible* to do
away with these centralized functions, and this is happening now, in a very
non-public way.

-- KNC