An interesting
article at
The Register--an IT news site that features dry British wit and frequent snark--regarding a change in US policy towards the running of the Internet. Instead of relinquishing control over the root name servers when our contract expires in September 2006, the US Department of Commerce--in the form of one Michael D. Gallagher (assistant secretary at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration)--now says that the US will maintain control indefinitely.
(It continues...)
"The United States Government intends to preserve the security and stability of the Internet's Domain Name and Addressing System (DNS). Given the Internet's importance to the world's economy, it is essential that the underlying DNS of the Internet remain stable and secure. As such, the United States is committed to taking no action that would have the potential to adversely impact the effective and efficient operation of the DNS and will therefore maintain its historic role in authorising changes or modifications to the authoritative root zone file," is the first of a four-point statement which can be found here."
Perhaps a little background is in order. The Internet grew out of the ARPAnet, a project of the US Department of Defense. When it transitioned from a military experimental project to a commercial network, control was given to ICANN, an essentially academic body that in turn farmed out the actual control of the Internet to the same people who had been running the ARPAnet: the US government.
This was not particularly popular with other countries, who are naturally reluctant to see their economies become increasingly reliant on a network that is controlled by the US. To try to keep everyone happy, ICANN agreed that when its contract with the US was up in September 2006, control over the root of the Internet would be given to an international body, perhaps the ITU at the UN.
As the article goes on to say:
Clearly the internet has entered the Bush administration's vision and the resulting DoC statement - which boldly tells the rest of the world that the US will continue to run the Internet and everyone will just have to lump it - is very in keeping with how the US government is currently run.
Somehow it's not surprising that the Bush administration would opt to change their minds, take their ball and go home. This all has more time to play out and we have yet to hear from all the players. But since the US has possession of the Internet, it's not clear what anyone can really do about it. The Bush administration attitude was driven home by this:
But what is most disturbing about Gallagher's presentation, is how it endlessly refers to the president. The first slide has a picture of George Bush. The second begins "Thanks to the president's policies, America's economy is strong". The next slide is "The president's broadband vision". The next slide leads with a quote from Bush and two pictures of him. And on and on it goes. There is barely a single slide that doesn't quote from the president.
That's just a bit too "Dear Leader" for me.