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The Clock Is Ticking For the US To Relinquish Control of ICANN (betanews.com)

Posted by timothy on from the independence-day dept.

Mark Wilson writes: The U.S. is not afraid to throw its weight around; it likes not only to be involved in things, but to be in control. For decades, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) — the non-profit organization that manages IP addresses and domain names — has been overseen by the U.S. Department of Commerce, much to the chagrin of people around the world. Most upset are those who point to the independent nature of the internet, and the need for any body with global power to be similarly indpendent. Later this year ICANN is set — at long last — to completely separate from the U.S. government.

While this does hinge on U.S. government approval, by the end of September, ICANN could instead be in the hands of businesses, individuals, and multiple global governments. While the changing of hands should not alter the way ICANN operates, it is hoped that it will go some way to restoring faith that may have been lost after revelations about online surveillance by the NSA and other U.S. government agencies.

2 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. ICANN won't change. The proof is in its behavior. by gavron · · Score: 4, Informative

    ----before you Reply/criticize, please read at least one of the links I posted below - thank you ---

    Change in ICANN has been impossible to come by. The only "representative of the people", Karl Aurbach
    tried for years to get some accountability, some rationality, some responsibility. Instead all he got was
    stonewalled. It makes for interesting but not hopeful reading that ICANN is ready to manage a global
    network with ANY sort of eye to "the stakeholders."

    It's like letting the MAFIAA manage the Internet. Their goals are to please THEIR stakeholders, which
    do not include those of us who enjoy Pandora, Spotify, Hulu, Bittorrent, etc.

    Here's that "interesting reading" I promised. It's a small but representative subset.
    http://www.circleid.com/posts/...
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...
    http://archive.icann.org/en/co...
    https://w2.eff.org/Infrastruct...

    Ehud

  2. Re:Dumb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Any link between ICANN and NSA (or any other information gathering organization) is utterly dumb. ICANN doesn't determine network protocols, ICANN doesn't have any say in encryption, ICANN doesn't deal with routing, ICANN is not about security. It is a little like linking the Dept of Agriculture with influence over the recent UN nuclear deal.

    ICANN may not determine the internals of a network protocol, but they do handle how some of those protocols function. For example, beyond doling out IP addresses, ICANN doles out the AS Numbers used for routing on the Internet. They also choose what top level domains exist and who may assign to them. They provide the unique OID numbers used for SNMP. The select what codes are assigned to various protocols at the Ethernet level and the IP level, thus indirectly selecting what protocols are standard and may interoperate on the Internet. They select the numbers used in DHCP, thus selecting what information may be served via DHCP and what may not. They define what mechanisms are standard authentication for HTTP. They define what digest algorithms are part of the HTTP standard and how they are identified.

    They do various other related things that help people coalesce around standard names/numbers for making communication on the Internet possible.