Next battle over Net ramps up worldwide

While Congress is consumed by the online piracy battle, an arguably more important fight over the future of the Internet is quietly unfolding abroad.

In the coming months, countries will negotiate a treaty that will dictate how the Internet is managed. Currently, a collection of technical bodies govern the Web, deciding issues such as domain name management and technical protocols — and do so in a manner that, experts agree, is mostly devoid of politics. But if Russia, India and other countries have their way, that could all change. Models under discussion would potentially give governments more power over Web content and the pipes through which it flows. Critics fret that countries might try to use that new power to monetize Web traffic. The end result, American officials warn, would be an Internet more susceptible to censorship and less potent as a tool to foster democracy.