Domain Registration Related News
Bush administration annexes internet
July 2005
An extraordinary statement by the US government has sent shockwaves
around the internet world and thrown the future of the network into
doubt.
In a worrying U-turn, the US Department of Commerce (DoC) has made it
clear it intends to retain control of the internet's root servers
indefinitely. It was due to relinquish that control in September 2006,
when its contract with overseeing body ICANN ended.
The decision - something that people have long feared may happen -
will not only make large parts of the world furious but also puts
ICANN in a very difficult position. The organisation has slowly been
expanding out of its California base in an effort to become an
international body with overall responsibility for the internet.
The US government is professing its full backing for ICANN (which it
created) at the same time that it awards itself control of the net's
foundations, which will have the inevitable effect of pulling the
organisation back into the US.
This is particularly relevant at the moment as a UN review of internet
governance will report later this year and indications are that the
team is considering handing over elements of internet control to a UN
body, possibly the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
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