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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."
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.
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.
I don't get how that's a good thing. How would eliminating oversight make ICANN into a more stable and accountable organization?
ICANN is a private entity that makes decisions that affect the Internet at large with almost no public oversight as it is. They are already proposing to add a bunch more ridiculous TLDs to fund their enormous proposed budget increases. It has become clear that new TLDs are not intended to improve the Internet, but are rather ICANN's license to print money. How would things be better if they no longer had anyone to answer to for that sort of garbage?
Sure, the US government is not great at oversight with regard to technical matters, but it's a lot better than no oversight at all. Given the hatred of the UN on this site, I'm sure no one would ever want ICANN to be brought under their influence, but some sort of international governing body would be a good thing. At this point, the UN is the closes thing we have to something like that.
Bringing ICANN under international control and creating more opportunity for the public at large to influence their decision making would be a step in the right direction. Ending what little oversight the organization currently has with nothing to replace it is a step in the wrong direction.
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"
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.
You're new to this planet aren't you? :)
Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick Two.
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.
At least it wouldn't give people the feeling that the USA likes to stick their nose in all matters and have control of everything under the sun...
We seem to agree, here on Slashdot, that the relative "anarchy" inherent to the way the internet works is a good thing, and that government control over it should be kept to a minimum. Why, then, do some people insist that the American government keep control over something as important to the internet as the ICANN? It would be the same as giving them the power to regulate which protocols and data formats you are allowed to use over the internet (currently, apart from the fact that you must encapsulate your packets into IP, they can contain pretty much anything you'd like). That kind of control would go against the spirit of the internet. In my opinion, control of the ICANN by a government (be it the American one or any other) is no different.
Score: i, Imaginary