Hi
At first when I read the terms posted by Marshall Eubanks I sort of wanted to
react with my reptile brain and boycott the whole thing.
Looking in perspective however the idealistic part of me wants to believe that
the Chinese people gains a lot more than they lose if the IETF visits China,
nobody gains if we boycott countries just because we don't like their reign.
IETF should not take on a political position, the only possible political
position should be that the country in question must be able to issue visas to
people coming from all countries (this is however not exactly the case with any
country today).
In the unlikely but possible case that something unfortunate happens and the
whole meeting closes down because somebody makes a political manifest at the
meeting I believe it gives a lot more bad-will for the Chinese government than
for the IETF.
That said, history has shown quite clearly that all efforts to try to control
what people say and think will ultimately fail, it happened in the former
eastern block and will happen in China as well and it is quite obvious that IP
technology has made the control apparatus even more complex for the Chinese
government.
It's like when you construct a pond with concrete, the water will always find
the cracks...
/Ingemar
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Ingemar Johansson
Senior Research Engineer, IETF "nethead"
EAB/TVK - Multimedia Technologies
Ericsson Research Ericsson AB
Box 920 S-971 28 Luleå, Sweden
Tel: +46 (0)10 7143042
ECN: 852-43042
Mobile: +46 (0)730 783289
Visit http://labs.ericsson.com !
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