more on American dominance of the Internet, redux

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dan Lynch <dan () lynch com>
Date: October 16, 2005 6:29:39 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc: Esther Dyson <edyson () edventure com>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on American dominance of the Internet, redux


Esther has it right: what we have with ICANN is the best we could  
hope for
-- a slightly illegitimate overseer of some technical functions that  
make
the Internet glue stick when it should stick.  Jon Postel used to do  
that
just fine, but he died and we knew that day would eventually come and  
we all
knew Jon was a benign dictator with a huge intellect and no committee  
could
ever replace his wisdom.  So, as Esther suggests, leaving it twisting  
in the
wind is good for all of us ordinary Netizens.

Dan


On 10/15/05 3:39 PM, "David Farber" <dave () farber net> wrote:


> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Esther Dyson <edyson () edventure com>
> Date: October 15, 2005 5:24:20 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] American dominance of the Internet, redux
>
>
> Another take on all this... (primarily for those following the issue
> closely, because it leaves out a lot of background)
>
> I'm planning to post it, but I may change it if I learn something new
> in the meantime.
>
> Esther
>
> ICANN - In praise of illegitimacy
> One place I am *not* going, however, is Tunisia… despite all the
> excitement over WSIS, which stands for World Summit on the
> Information Society <http://www.itu.int/wsis/>http://www.itu.int/
> wsis/,  taking place in Tunis November 16 to 18.  But of course, WSIS
> is more than just an event. It’s a series of “processes,” the term
> bureaucrats use for meetings and conference calls.  The main thrust
> of WSIS is that ICANN <http://www.icann.org/>www.icann.org – which
> sets policy for the Domain Name System and which I chaired in its
> start-up phase, 1998-2000 – is fundamentally US-dominated and should
> be brought under proper, legitimate, international control,
> accountable to all the people of the world. I beg to disagree.  You
> can argue about the details, but yes, ICANN is to some extent under
> US control, even though it has a thoroughly international board and
> lots of other checks and balances.  It mostly acts on its own but it
> does have a contract with the US government tat gives it what little
> authority it has… plus general agreement by most domain-name
> registrars and registries to follow its rules for lack of any other
> authority.  You may think that's  a slightly unstable situation, and
> indeed it is.  The US would *like* to give up control (ICANN is a hot
> potato), but only to an organization it trusts.
>
> There’s the rub.  The US doesn’t – and personally I don’t – trust any
> other organization to take over ICANN, although we have different
> reasons. (I also know that if the US tried to impose its will on the
> Internet more broadly through ICANN, it would meet proper, quick and
> strong resistance.)
>
> Indeed, the very whiff of illegitimacy around ICANN is its saving
> grace.  Suppose some body emerged that was generally considered to be
> legitimate, and that could tightly control the DNS through ICANN. If
> it was legitimate, what would stop it from doing much more? It could
> quickly set new, broad rules governing “appropriate” content,
> intellectual property rights, “suitability” for domain name ownership…
> and because it was legitimate, it would be hard to stop it.
>
> The biggest danger for ICANN is indeed that it become “legitimate”
> and way too powerful.  Its current slightly off-kilter authority
> keeps it from amassing power  and from attracting the inevitable
> power-hungry forces that would abuse that power.  In short,  I’m not
> so much in favor of US control as I am in favor of the current status
> quo of uncertain, dis-armed control.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Esther Dyson              Always make new mistakes!
> Editor, Release 1.0
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