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While they couldn't agree on how it should be done, all of the speakers at Monday's 2012 Canadian Internet Forum agreed that government needs to take a more active role in Internet governance.

The Ottawa event, held annually by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), brought together more than 250 people from government, law enforcement agencies and the technical sector to discuss a smorgasbord of issues affecting Canadians' access to the Internet.

The keynote speaker, Dragons' Den star Robert Herjavec, spoke about escalating data theft, an ever-evolving Internet and the need for government to begin setting some serious ground rules about people's conduct online.

"Ultimately, governments will be the saviour of the Internet," said Herjavec. "Some of the bills today are rocky and ambitious. But, I'm OK with that. You have to try and we'll get there."

Herjavec compared current developments with the emergence of the automobile at the start of the 20th century. Only a select handful of individuals owned cars and as a result, road work and signage was funded by private organizations such as the Canadian Automobile Association, founded in 1900. Aside from lobbying on behalf of automobile owners, the CAA was responsible for getting urban speed limits lifted to 10 m.p.h. from eight m.p.h. and pushing the federal government to begin construction on the Trans-Canada Highway in 1922. Governments didn't become active in regulating automobiles in Canada until a significant number of citizens owned cars.

"Some element of that has to happen with regards to the Internet," said Herjavec.

Bertrand de La Chapelle, a member of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), called on governments to sit together and set global ground rules for Internet governance.

Now, La Chapelle said, govern-Now, La Chapelle said, governments around the world are trying to set rules and regulations governing Internet practices within their own countries. Those go-it-alone policies are largely useless.

"If I am a French guy travelling in Brazil and post something defamatory about a British guy over Twitter, what is the process for handling that?" he asked. "The Internet is being governed by geographical boundaries. The more the Internet grows, the more it is successful, the more we need common rules."

Last year the United States government seized a number of Internet domain names it believed were being used to stream copyrighted video over the Internet. One of those sites was Spain's Rojadirecta.com. Despite it not breaking any Spanish laws, the U.S. was able to seize the website's address because all Inter-net addresses ending with .com, .net and .org are administered from U.S.based servers. Since they are based on American soil, the U.S. believes those websites should be accountable to U.S. laws.

"The legislation of one country can expand and become applicable in other territories," said La Chapelle. "Welcome to the great debate about what is the geography of cyber space?"

La Chapelle, Herjavec and others warned that while governments must initiate the talks, they can't dominate them without input from the public. Speakers pointed to backlash around legislation such as the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. and the recent uproar in Canada against Bill C-30, which would give police increased powers of surveillance, both created with minimal public discussion. They also pointed to the highly contentious Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) that was spurred by the Office of the United States Trade Representative and negotiated behind closed doors. The treaty has sparked riots by opponents in numerous countries.

Byron Holland, president and chief executive of CIRA, said governments no longer can operate on an issueby-issue basis in which they legislate from behind closed doors. The Internet has become too all-encompassing to forgo public discussion.

"Legislatures are used to legislating on a single issue or a single industry," he said. "They can't do that anymore. If you pull a lever on copyright or child endangerment you have no idea what the effect will be (elsewhere)."

Holland said CIRA created the annual Canadian Internet Forum to bring together the country's top minds to discuss issues and potential roadblocks that may affect Internet adoption in Canada.

He admitted CIRA's reach is limited - the organization administers only administers the .ca Internet domain name - but said it can help by providing a forum where Canadians can openly speak about In-

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