IANA contract up for bid

["Dude VanWinkle" <dudevanwinkle () gmail com>]

Via the register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/24/iana_contract/
The US government has taken the extraordinary step of dangling the
contract for control of the internet above the heads of the world.

In a "Sources Sought Notice" put out by the Department of Commerce
(DoC) late on Tuesday and only just noticed by the internet community,
it is asking for "potential respondents" for the contract to run the
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

The IANA "function" is the maintenance of the main root file of the
internet, the internet's directory. It decides who runs all the
branches of the internet, including all the world's country codes such
as .uk for Britain or .de for Germany.

By not stating the process as a "rebid", which the US government is
entitled to do, the notice has been widely seen by the industry as a
stark warning to internet overseeing organisation ICANN to pull its
socks up.

ICANN derives much of its real power from the fact that it holds the
IANA contract and has frequently been accused of abusing that control
to push its own agenda. Despite the fact that in public the US
government is forced to praise ICANN, the two remain entwined in an
unhappy marriage.

To make matters all the more complicated, the DoC actually retains
control over ICANN and a memorandum of understanding between the two
companies is due to expire later this year.
<snip>

SO does this mean the IANA contract is actually not up for grabs, and
they are just messing with ICANN?

-JP

_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.