South African Internet Blackout?

MdeGale writes "A tussle for control of the .za domain has sparked the possibility of a blackout for all .za sites. This article in the Independent online reports that Mike Lawrie -- the administrator of the ".za" domain -- would: 'have no alternative but to pull the plug on millions of email addresses and Internet sites if parliament passed the controversial Electronic Communications and Transactions Bill this week.' There is an excellent breakdown of the background situation at Politech. Basically the SA government wants to regulate the domain (and take over administering it). The Bill -- due to be passed this week -- would make this law, without Lawrie's agreement to the redelegation, as per ICANN practice."

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before the article blacks out....

[Anonymous Coward]

before the article blacks out (wid or widdout /. effect)

SA Internet blackout looms

Cape Town - The administrator of the dotza (.za) domain name on the Internet would have no alternative but to pull the plug on millions of email addresses and Internet sites if parliament passed the controversial Electronic Communications and Transactions Bill this week, he said on Sunday.

Mike Lawrie, the administrator of the dotza Internet and email sites, said the department of communications was pushing ahead with the bill despite repeated appeals. The bill would place the registration of domain names under government control, which was totally unacceptable in terms of international conventions.

Lawrie, who has been running dotza since 1990 with the approval of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the United States-based body overseeing Internet and email communications, said this would affect the electronic communications of government, business and academic institutions.

"It does seem like there is a most serious crisis looming and something has to be done to avert it," he said on Sunday.

The national assembly's portfolio committee on communications is due to finalise the bill on Monday before it comes to a vote on Friday.

Lawrie's main concern was with Chapter 10 of the bill, which provides for the minister of communications to appoint a panel to recommend candidates to the board of a Section 21 company to regulate and register domain name users. This was "quite unacceptable in terms of the way that the Internet works", he said.

"Parliament cannot pass legislation relating to the Internet and expect that the Internet will kow-tow to that legislation. It does not work that way."

He said there were "clear standards laid down for how a redelegation of a country code domain shall take place". This involved all parties, including Lawrie (as the administrator), the government, Internet users and commercial representatives agreeing on how domain names would be registered.

"I am not going to give my consent for a redelegation if the bill is in [its present] form," Lawrie said.

"My bottom line is that there must be accountability to the Internet community, a democratically elected board of the Section 21 company and independence from interference by the government."