US Drops ICANN/DNS Bombshell (on WSIS?)

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law"  
<froomkin () law miami edu>
Date: June 30, 2005 4:52:52 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: US Drops ICANN/DNS Bombshell (on WSIS?)
Reply-To: froomkin () law tm


The US Department of Commerce has announced an unexpected new policy  
regarding the Domain Name System (DNS) and the Internet Corporation  
for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

In previous pronouncements, the US had indicated that the US would  
someday release its ultimate control over the 'root' - the file that  
contains the master list of authorized registries and thus determines  
which TLDs show up on the consensus Internet and who shall have the  
valuable right to sell names in them. That day would come if and when  
ICANN fulfilled a number of conditions spelled out in a Memorandum of  
Understanding (MOU).

Today's announcement says the opposite: the US plans to keep control  
of the root indefinitely, thus freezing the status quo. Nothing will  
change immediately as a result. But the timing is weird, coming as it  
does only a short time before the forthcoming meeting of the UN- 
sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

 More at http://www.discourse.net/archives/2005/06/ 
us_drops_icanndns_bombshell_on_wsis.html

--
http://www.icannwatch.org   Personal Blog: http://www.discourse.net
A. Michael Froomkin   |    Professor of Law    |   froomkin () law tm
U. Miami School of Law, P.O. Box 248087, Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA
+1 (305) 284-4285  |  +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax)  |  http://www.law.tm
                         -->It's hot here.<--


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