An important question... I recall a peering panel at an ISPCON in 1996 when the current Peering Badguys, BBN, were represented by John, who listened to a ton of bitching for an hour about the unfairness of it all and said (paraphrasing)... "I understand you all have your opinions and desires but I just want to point out one thing. It is now 1996, 2 years after the widespread adoption of the web, and in every city in the US there are at least two ISPs happily providing unlimited {dialup} access for under $20/mo. What do you think we'd have if it were run or regulated by the government?" Luckily, many bureaucrats and politicians in our government do understand that. And so far The Community has been able to put pressure on international bodies and other governments don't have the clout. Hopefully that remains the case for some time. Avi

In general, governments have avoided regulating various aspects of the Internet, in part because of lack of understanding and in part because the community keeps telling them that trying to regulate won't work because of its decentralized nature. As the Internet becomes increasingly important to each country's economy and its citizens, the status quo is not likely to continue.

The real question is, when governments do decide to try and help "improve the Internet", who will they be listening to, and will the operator community have spoken with a clear enough voice in these matters on what actually would make for an improvement?

FYI, /John