For example--what happens when name-service information for a part that is not shutdown comes from a part that is?
What if an exchange point for parts that are not shutdown is shutdown.
And spare me the tinfoil hat stuff--tinfoil hats have not worked for a year or more. -- Somebody should have said: A democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.
We can play "what if" all day long and wargame all sorts of scenarios but what it all boils down to is that there is really no such thing as "The Internet". Just exactly how would the government implement any policy that involved shutting things down and to what extent could they accomplish anything without hurting themselves? What if your NSP is a foreign company? Can our government tell a French company that they cannot communicate with someone else? Can our government tell any American company that they cannot communicate with another American company within the US? Do you "white list" certain communicators and allow them access while denying others? If so, how do you prevent your white list from becoming obsolete the day after it is produced? When you start disconnecting data communications you begin to impact such things as voice communications, news media dissemination of information, individuals in key positions losing a communications path, etc. The notion of government being able to "shut down" portions of "the internet" sounds easy to do in theory but I am not sure it has been thought through at the practical level. I would seem to me that the only effective way one could implement such a policy is to initially shut down ALL communications and then gradually certify various nodes for reinstatement into the net. I have no confidence that the government could ever pull such a thing off. G