Re: US to relinquish control of Internet

["John R. Levine" <johnl () iecc com>]

> The ITU is an agency of  the United Nations.    Which is an organization
> created  by treaty, of which  various nations'  governments are members.

Actually, the ITU is more than twice as old as the UN, and merged with the 
UN in 1947.  As noted in a previous message, the ITU has both government 
and non-government members, more of the later than the former, which 
arguably makes it a multi-stakeholder entity.  I entirely believe that 
NTIA doesn't want the ITU involved with ICANN, but the ITU has made it 
abundantly clear over the years that it wants a seat at the table, 
preferably its own table.

I listened to the ICANN press conference this morning, the gist of which 
was don't worry, nothing will change, but once the NTIA opens up the ICANN 
management contract (or whatever it's called these days) to other parties, 
keeping the ITU out will be a challenge.

R's,
John