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U.S. Government Retains ICANN Oversight
narramissic writes "ITworld reports that the U.S. Commerce Department will retain ICANN oversight for three more years, although there will be a review in 18 months of ICANN's progress toward becoming a more stable, transparent and accountable organization. The decision comes despite international pressure advocating for the U.S. government to bow out and make ICANN a totally autonomous entity."
...welcome our old insect overlords...
Nothing ever has. You cannot be completely invisible and fully accountable. You missed a word though, more. They are looking for a greater sense of stability, transparency, and accountability. Completely different than absolutes.
The Internal Revenue Service. That organization seems to be very good at what they do.
You are checking your backups, aren't you?
Wincopy
Duh!
Wincopy
The U.S. Postal Service does a pretty darn competitive job despite congressional oversight.
steampunk web design
You've got to be kidding.
The only reason they haven't totally failed is they are a legal monopoly.
Their customer service and satisfaction is horrible. Many people can't even figure out how to file their own taxes.
They can't even effectively get the money they're owed, they are outsourcing that to private collection agents.
I believe accountability leads to transparency and vice-versa. The word transparency in this case doesn't mean invisible, it means the full, accurate, and timely disclosure of information. Which can be accomplished, although not always easily.
I realize I'm going against "common wisdom" here on Slashdot, but is it really so bad that the U.S. retains control of ICANN?
I mean, what's the alternative? Putting it under control of the UN, like WIPO?
Would that really be better or would it just give people warm, fuzzy feelings?
NIST, the Postal Service, etc, etc. There are many examples, but your irrational US hatred blinds you to this.
Of course, the USPS became an independent entity that receives 0 taxpayer dollars, too...
My blog
The decision comes despite international pressure advocating for the U.S. government to bow out and make ICANN a totally autonomous entity.
;) Welcome to the Treehouse.
A totally autonomous entity? You want to make ICANN it's own individual nation? The Internet should be run by a stateless corporation who is completely outside the authority of any government at all? That's straight out of a cyberpunk novel
I thought the argument was to place ICANN under the authority of the UN, which is a completely different idea then making "ICANN a totally autonomous entity".
This is the meat of the argument, right? Should ICANN be under US authority or should it be under UN authority?
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
"The NY Times reports that John Derringer of 5th Ave. will retain his pocket change. The decision comes despite numerous homeless people asking him for money."
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
An autonomous ICANN is even more dangerous than what we have today. We can easily predict that the autonomous ICANN would basically do whatever the registies want: granting them perpetual, unregulated monopolies with the ability to raise prices and otherwise screw customers at will. Internet users would have no say at all.
This place has really gone to hell as UIDs approached one million.
Are you stupid, or being deliberately obtuse? Either one is annoying.
In case you're just an idiot, "fully transparent" refers to the skin of the organization, so you can look in, and see it working. It doesn't mean that the whole thing is invisible and even if it did, that would still be useful - you could see what it ate.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Transparency has many definitions, please review and note differences between computing, business, material, etc.
Actually they are retaining oversight while ICANN works to improve it's stability, transparency and accountability. It doesn't say the US government is trying to turn ICANN into that. Simply cutting it loose before it's ready will cause chaos. The US government has transitioned other entities to outside control. I'm the first one to say the US government is a screwed up mess but this is probably the responsible way of handling the transition. They aren't going back on the transition they are adjusting the timeline to give time to make sure that ICANN doesn't fall into chaos.
Replace "US Government" with "Any Government"
The postal service is "stable and accountable"?
I'll grant you the "stable". You don't hear of snails usually falling over. But it is hard to call them "accountable" with the increased prices matched by decreased service, and the high level of lost mail.
Where were you when the voynix came?
I'm sorry, but when has the US Government *ever* had a hand in something that turned into a stable, transparent and accountable organization?
When compared to the alternative by anyone other than starry-eyed international idealists, the US Government starts to look pretty damn good.
The US Government's control has resulted in the internet being a near-perfect bastion of free speech. With all the "Hate speech" and "Don't criticize the Government" laws you see in many other countries around the world, do you think giving them a hand in the matter would really improve things?
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
Maybe nothing at all but then maybe someone else (a mix of nations) could do even better.
When has 'a mix of nations' ever run anything well?
'I ain't a liar, baby, and I ain't proud I just want what I'm not allowed.' -- Violent Femmes, 36-24-36
There is no way the US will EVER give up control .... especially in the present power crazed and fear driven attitude
For gods sake think of the children/terrorists/economic situation (delete as appropriate)we can't let an organisation comprised of non-americans have any power, they might do something we don't like
ICANN are announcing it as a move to much more independance and emphasising LESS US-DOC control. Spin or PR? I dunno. the press-release is here
Post WW2 Germany
Post WW2 Japan
Need any more?
It's only a matter of time before ICANN is order to edit the root DNS servers to combat child porn, terrorism, rouge states and/or anti-american sentiment. People who deny this are fooling only themselves. ICANN will go the way of every other agency in contemporary America. To the right. The US is no longer fit to lead the free world in anything anymore. This is not a troll. It really isn't.
There isn't a substantial amount of difference between US theocrats running DNS and Chinese autocrats running DNS. I'd rather have the UN in charge because at least then I could rely on inefficient beaucracy and discord to leave the system we know and love well enough alone.
May the Maths Be with you!
You're new to this planet aren't you? :)
Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick Two.
Umm.... Amtrak? *COUGH*, *COUGH*
I'll be here all week! Thank you!
just an analog boy living in a digital age.
Maybe so, but how long will it be before some nations petition the UN to "display" a Page Blocked message due to obscene content?
Now I for one certainly would not appreciate any one or any bodies knocking on my door telling me that I am unfit to operate/maintain the network I set up in my house, paid for with my money and invested my time into simply because they and their followers wanted to operate/maintain it. They would promplty recieve a vulgar face to face message embeded with some choice obscenities and the slamming of a door followed by sounds of a deadbolt being engaged. How many slashdotters would just love to walk into some company's massive server farm and declare they are unfit to operate it and will have forfeit controll of it. I would love to walk into the googleplex and declare that they are unfit to have such a wealth of search data and have to let me "over-see" all operations from this point on.
The fact is this is a major step forward for the multi-stakeholder model of consultation that ICANN represents. It means ICANN is more autonomous. Where's the proof? Previous to this agreement there was a Memorandum of Understanding between the DOC and ICANN that was highly prescriptive. The MOU expires on 30 September 2006. The Assistant Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce has said publicly today that he wants to work to make ICANN a stable, lasting and independent institution. The major gains in this new agreement are: ICANN will no longer have its work prescribed for it. How it works and what it works on is up to ICANN and its community to devise; ICANN is not required to report every 6 months as it has been under the MOU. It will now provide an annual report that will be targeted to the whole Internet community; There is no requirement to report regularly to the DOC. The DOC will simply meet with senior ICANN staff from time to time. So, the top-line here is that this is a major step forward for ICANN to be completely autonomous. But that autonomy means ICANN has an obligation to be accountable to its community and it will be.
Yep, but I'm willing to bet that most Slashdotters aren't old enough to remember that the Post Office was at certain points in the not-too-distant past, a real mess.
They've gotten better and better the further they've gotten out from under the boot of Congress. I think they'd maybe almost survive in the open market today.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Then we'd veto. Besides, if fundamentalist christians in the US have been unable to censor the internet (despite having allies at the highest levels of the government) then I don't think it's going to happen in the UN.
The problem with Amtrak is that the U.S. government insists on running a railroad, when what they ought to be doing is just maintaining the right-of-ways.
Congress also spends billions of dollars on the Interstate Highways, yet they don't monopolize over-the-road trucking; truckers use the infrastructure and theoretically pay taxes to do so (levied on diesel fuel). We all know that they don't come close to paying for the damage they do to the infrastructure...but that's a different discussion.
If Congress tried to create Amtruck, I can guarantee you that it would be as much of a gigantic cockup as Amtrak is -- probably worse.
The best thing they could do now would be to take over the rail infrastructure and manage it just like the interstate highways are managed, and then let the railroads use them in the same way that truckers use the roads. The same arguments that are used for subsidization of the Interstates would apply in equal or greater strength to railroads -- particularly considering the price of energy and the inherent efficiency of rail for moving heavy loads around. Encouraging the use of the rail network by paying for its maintenance would have both economic and environmental benefits.
The problem with Amtrak is that it's micromanaged, and thus it's doomed almost from the beginning not to failure, but mediocrity.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Indeed - if you want the internet to be left well alone then the UN is the *ideal* place to put oversight, because any change will take so long to get out of committee we'll all be grandparents by then.
.travel? WTF do we need industry specific TLDs for? Just how many frikkin' museums *are* there that want their own domain anyway?) just in an attempt to make money. The *only* domains that should be created are the top level country TLDs and let the countries themselves handle everything below that (as they do at the moment).
At the moment ICANN is basically pulling random domains out of its ass (.museum?
Obviously, the words are just invisible.
Fnord.
This is the meat of the argument, right? Should ICANN be under US authority or should it be under UN authority?
Of the two, I'd rather see it under US control. With the exception of the .xxx domain the US hasn't done much to control how or where the internet goes, that I know of. If the UN gets control though Cuba, North Korea, and others will try to grab control of the whole thing. I'd rather see it stay pretty much open and not closed.
FalconShould there be a Law?
What about one country controlling a World-wide resource?
It's better to work together than to fight. Being xenophobic never fixed any problem I know of.
Replace "any government" with "any large enough group of human beings". If you've ever worked for a large company, then you know what I'm talking about.