Richard Hill’s response to Anthony Rutkowski’s review

Citation

Hill, R. (2014), "Richard Hill’s response to Anthony Rutkowski’s review", info, Vol. 16 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/info-02-2014-0009

Richard Hill’s response to Anthony Rutkowski’s review

Article Type: Letter From: info, Volume 16, Issue 3

Sir: The first paragraph of Mr Rutkowski’s review of my book (#B1) provides an accurate summary. Mr Rutkowski then proceeds to offer various criticisms of my recent writings, my work, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the new International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs). Some of his statements are opinions to which he is entitled, some are misstatements of fact. I thus feel it necessary to correct those misstatements.

I do not feel guilty of anything, so my recent writings, all published in peer-reviewed journals or books, are not any sort of penance (which is how Mr Rutkowski characterizes them). On the contrary, my writings reflect what I have learned from my 43-year career in information and communications technologies.

Mr Rutkowsi states that he was the Richard Hill of World Administrative Telegraph and Telephone Conference (WATTC)-88. From a formal point of view, this is not correct. Mr Rutkowski was the secretary of the WATTC-88 group dealing with the non-binding resolutions; other ITU staff members dealt with the treaty text. In contrast, I was the co-secretary of the group dealing with the treaty text. And I was the secretary for all of the ITU’s World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) preparatory groups.

Contrary to what Mr Rutkoswki states, I had little contact with the Russian Federation. I did have contacts with all of the ITU’s regional groups and with some of the ITU member states, because those groups and countries asked me to do so. In terms of regions, I had the most contact with Europe, Africa and the Arab states. In terms of individual countries, I had the most contact with the USA.

Mr Rutkowski uses his book review to reiterate his recent criticisms of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) that have appeared in various blogs. Much of that criticism is so extreme that it has drawn little or no support from informed observers. Because a review of a book on WCIT is not a proper forum to discuss the merits or demerits of ITU, I will not further address this issue here.

Turning back to the book itself, Mr Rutkowski kindly acknowledges that my book accurately notes that much of the press coverage and political commentary regarding WCIT was little more than rhetoric – much of which was patently inaccurate. And he notes that the book explains how much of the new ITRs is not related to the Internet and why some countries focused on the Internet-related parts of the new ITRs.

Mr Rutkowski states that the facts are different from the rendition in the book; he challenges my interpretation of the impact of WCIT-12 and of the 2012 ITRs, but he does not actually give any example of a factual mistake in my book. He states that my book ignores the fact that, as a result of the 2012 ITRs, there may be a significant stream of new legal texts. I am puzzled by this statement because an entire chapter of the book is devoted precisely to outlining what new legal texts may be needed.

Mr Rutkowski correctly notes that my analyses of the treaty provisions are nothing more than that, a point made explicitly in the book. Readers are encouraged to make their own analyses. And, in particular, they are free to disagree with my assertion that a refusal to be bound by the 2012 ITRs might have undesirable effects. The book explains why I make this assertion; it provides citations to those that share my view and to those that have other views, and it provides the facts that will allow readers to draw their own reasoned conclusions.

Mr Rutkowski states that most nations rejected the treaty; they refused to sign and walked out. In reality, 89 of the 144 states present and having authority to sign the treaty did so; no states “walked out”. Of the 55 non-signatories, only two stated that they could not consider subsequently acceding to the treaty – the other 53 non-signatories stated that they required more time to determine whether they would accede. Because Mr Rutkowsi was not present at WCIT-12 (nor did he participate in the preparatory process), his understanding of the situation may be based on misleading reports that are found in various blog posts.

Mr Rutkowski states that only three major telecommunication nations were among the signatories: China, Russia and Korea. He is thus apparently of the view that countries such as Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam (to name just a few) are not major telecommunication nations. He is entitled to his view, which I do not share.

Mr Rutkowski correctly points out that the 1988 treaty was instrumental in facilitating the move to privatization and liberalization, a point made at some length in my book. As a consequence, that treaty inevitably became obsolete (which Mr Rutkowski characterizes as a failure). As I documented in some detail, some thought that there was no need for a revised treaty, but, after considerable discussion, all member states agreed that a new treaty was required. And they agreed with most of the provisions of the new treaty, with only a few provisions being controversial.

Mr Rukowski says that the conference is noteworthy (because it failed to reach agreement), and he is kind enough to acknowledge that my description of how that came about is significant historically. Indeed, it is very unusual to fail to reach agreement within the ITU, and thus a factual presentation of what happened and an analysis of why it happened is relevant and should be of interest to all those who follow telecommunications in general and telecommunications law in particular.

Readers who wish to read a review that focuses on the book itself, rather than on its author or the ITU, may wish to read the review by Prof. Shawn Powers (#B2).

Richard Hill

President for the Association for Proper Internet Governance, Geneva, Switzerland.

References

Rutkowski, A. (2014), “Book review: the new international telecommunication regulations and the internet: a commentary and legislative history”, Info, Vol. 16 No. 3.

Powers, S. (2014), “Book review: the new international telecommunication regulations and the internet: a commentary and legislative history”, International Journal of Communications, Vol. 8, p. 749, available at: http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/2732/1098