In addition to the distasteful restriction on freedom of speech placed
on attendees (comments, perhaps made in jest, during the plenary or
even in the hallway about the "great firewall of china" might cause
summary ejection of the individuals or the entire groups), there are
two other issues that don't seem to be addressed in the Hotel
agreement.
(1) What assurances if any can be given about IETF members being
granted or denied visas based on blog postings talking about, say,
Google or Cisco being evil due to their aiding and abetting China's
censorship of the Internet made available to their citizens (not to
mention those who may have in the past rendered technical assistance
to those in China desiring to circumvent the "Great Firewall")?
(2) What sort of access will IETF'ers have to the Internet? Will
IETF'ers behind the Great Firewall? What about the ability for
IETF'ers to use encryption (ssh, IPSEC, etc.) to connect to their
corporate Intranet? Note that encrypted tunnels could be used by
IETF'ers to proxy out to get unfiltered internet access --- but will
the Chinese government allow this on the grounds that they won't be
able to monitor network activity for "political activity"? If these
restrictions prevents people from being to connect to their corporate
networks, it would seem to be an absolute showstopper.
- Ted
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