petition at the website below against the UN takeover of the internet

Right now at a UN meeting in Dubai authoritarian regimes are pushing for
full governmental control of the Internet in a binding global treaty — if
they succeed, the internet could become less open, more costly and much
slower. We have only 2 days to stop them.

We have stopped attacks like this before and can do it again before the
treaty text is locked this week. A wave of opposition to a new ITR is
already building — sign the petition to tell
governments hands off our
Internet! and then forward this email to everyone you know — when we hit 1
million signers, it’ll be delivered straight to the delegates at this cozy
meeting: 

http://www.avaaz.org/en/hands_off_our_internet_i/?beaJndb&v=20029

The meeting to update the ITR (International Telecommunication
Regulations) is being convened by a UN body called the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU). Normally, it wouldn’t merit much
attention, but Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and
others are trying to use the meeting to increase government control of the
Internet through proposals that would allow for access to be cut off more
easily, threaten privacy, legitimize monitoring and traffic-blocking, and
introduce new fees to access content online.

At the moment, our Internet has no central regulatory body, but various
non-profit organisations work together to manage different technological,
commercial and political interests to allow the Internet to run.  The
current model is certainly not without its flaws. US dominance and
corporate influence highlight the need for reform, but changes
should not
be dictated from an opaque governments-only treaty body. They should
emerge from an open and transparent, people-powered process — putting
the interests of us users in the center.

The ITU does extremely important work — expanding affordable access for
poor countries and securing networks — but it’s not the right place to
make changes to how the Internet operates. Let’s ensure that our Internet
stays free and governed by the public and show the ITU and the world that
we won’t stay silent in the face of this Internet attack. Click below to
sign and then share this email widely:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/hands_off_our_internet_i/?beaJndb&v=20029

SOURCES

Cerf and Berners Lee Criticize ITU Conference (IT Pro Portal):
http://www.itproportal.com/2012/12/05/sir-tim-berners-lee-joins-criticism-
of-un-internet-regulation-talks/#ixzz2EDlH06f5

ITU and Google face off at Dubai conference over future of the internet
(Guardian):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/dec/03/telecoms-unitednations

Keep the Internet Open (New York Times):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/25/opinion/keep-the-internet-open.html?
_r=1&

Proposal for global regulation of web (Financial Times):
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1b114d8c-422e-11e2-bb3a-
00144feabdc0.html#axzz2EdnmBAXI