Re: Request for community guidance on issue concerning a future meeting of the IETF

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On 9/18/09 9:42 AM, Marshall Eubanks wrote:

>    "Should the contents of the Group's activities, visual or audio
>    presentations at the conference,or printed materials used at the
>    conference (which are within the control of the Client) contain
>    any defamation against the Government of the People's Republic
>    of China, or show any disrespect to the Chinese culture, or
>    violates any laws of the People's Republic of China or feature
>    any topics regarding human rights or religion without prior
>    approval from the Government of the People's Republic of China,
>    the Hotel reserves the right to terminate the event on the spot
>    and/or ask the person(s) who initiates or participates in any or
>    all of the above action to leave the hotel premises immediately.
> 
>    The Client will support and assist the Hotel with the necessary
>    actions to handle such situations. Should there be any financial
>    loss incurred to the Hotel or damage caused to the Hotel's
>    reputation as a result of any or all of the above acts, the Hotel
>    will claim compensation from the Client."
> 
> What does this condition mean ? 

The problem is that we have no idea what this means, and even worse we
have in principle no way of discovering what it might mean. Presumably
interpretation of the rule will be up to the local authorities, and we
have no way of knowing beforehand what activities might be they might
construe as defamation of the local government, disrespect for the local
culture, violation of the local laws, or discussion of human rights or
religion. However, we can think of many statements that could be made
and topics that could be discussed at an IETF meeting that might fall
afoul of this rule. As a recent example, consider the session on network
neutrality during the technical plenary at IETF 75, which included a
freewheeling discussion about encryption as a human right (as I recall,
Ted Hardie even used the word "liberty"). Given the extraordinarily
vague nature of this condition, I think its effect would be chilling on
the freedom of speech that is necessary to complete even our technical
work, which as we know often threatens the asserted power of those who
function on Layer 8.

Peter

- --
Peter Saint-Andre
https://stpeter.im/


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