US relinquishes control of the internet

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

US relinquishes control of the internet

Icann ends agreement with the US government

Move will give other countries a prominent internet role

After complaints about American dominance of the internet and growing disquiet in some parts of the world, Washington has said it will relinquish some control over the way the network is run and allow foreign governments more of a say in the future of the system.

Icann – the official body that ultimately controls the development of the internet thanks to its oversight of web addresses such as .com, .net and .org – said today that it was ending its agreement with the US government.

The deal, part of a contract negotiated with the US department of commerce, effectively pushes California-based Icann towards a new status as an international body with greater representation from companies and governments around the globe.

Icann had previously been operating under the auspices of the American government, which had control of the net thanks to its initial role in developing the underlying technologies used for connecting computers together.

But the fresh focus will give other countries a more prominent role in determining what takes place online, and even the way in which it happens – opening the door for a virtual United Nations, where many officials gather to discuss potential changes to the internet.

Icann chief Rod Beckstrom, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Washington insider who took over running the organisation in July, said there had been legitimate concerns that some countries were developing alternative internets as a way of routing around American control.

"It's rumoured that there are multiple experiments going on with countries forking the internet, various countries have discussed this," he said. "This is a very significant shift because it takes the wind out of our opponents."

He added that the changes would prove powerful when combined with upcoming plans to allow web users to use addresses with names in Chinese, Arabic or other alphabets other than Latin. Many countries have lobbied for the shift in recent years, as the expansion of the web reaches out deeper into society and business.

While the issue reached critical mass in emerging economies such as China, it is not the only country that has lobbied for a change. Earlier this year European officials said that they did not think it was proper for America to retain so much control over the global computer network.

Viviane Reding, the EU's commissioner for information society and media, said she was pleased that Washington chose to make the shift.

"I welcome the US administration's decision to adapt Icann's key role in internet governance to the reality of the 21st century," she said. "If effectively and transparently implemented, this reform can find broad acceptance among civil society, businesses and governments alike."

Meanwhile Nominet - the British organisation that handles the day-to-day running of .uk domain names - said that Icann had started a trend for companies with internet influence to appear more open and accountable.

"Putting public interest first will also be a focus for the UK internet community over the coming months as there is growing support for Nominet to develop more of a public interest role," said Nominet's chief executive, Lesley Cowley.

The new agreement comes into force immediately. It replaces the old version which had been in place since 1998 and was scheduled to expire today.

Beckstrom suggested that bringing more countries to the table was the best way of ensuring the long term future of the internet.

"We're more global, period. The chances of the internet holding together just went up, the cohesion just went up," he said. "We expect more active involvement from governments, a higher level of participation from many governments and we're already hearing about more governments joining the team… This was, ironically, a power move from the US."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/...nn-agreement-us

[Old Dominion 26]

The internet was started by the U.S. for military purposes. Al Gore invented it.

[S and S 12]

Interesting, though I suppose this shift was going to happen sooner or later.

[Ban Hammer 13,645]

great, this means i'll probably get more spam from asia.

[S and S 12]

great, this means i'll probably get more spam from asia.

that should prove to be entertaining

[Dan J 277]

ICANN doesn't control the internet. No one does really, different companies have control of parts of it.

What ICANN does is set and regulate the rules for domain names and help manage the base infrastructure related to the domain name system.

[NickD 203]

Chavez had blocked many of our local servers, was surprised when I was down there last November as to my limits on the internet. Still can contact with hotmail or gmail, he hasn't gotten that far yet. With my stepson still their yet, we chat and look up goodies here he would like to get, Chavez is cleaning up royally on anything imported, like three times the price as here. But my step son cannot open the sites, so I copy them and e-mail them via hotmail. But don't tell Chavez that. He will block that too.

[GabiandVi 34]

China has an intranet. They control a lot of what is allowed in and can block anything at any moment. All open domain sites were blocked, such as any geocity site. A lot of university sites were blocked, probably because they had asian student association sites linked that might comment on what was going on in China, or other such links.

Once, one of our students, even though he had been expressly warned not to by the librarian, chose to research Fa Long Gong for his world religions course. Our entire school was blocked for a week. We could not use the internet at all.

Hotmail was often almost impossible to get to, but for yahoo mail, there were only a couple of months when I couldn't get through.

[NickD 203]

If I didn't meet my wife six years ago, would have never met her today, those sites are also blocked today. Before her, made many Russian friends to learn they were people just like we, sweating just like us to survive. Gave me an entirely different perspective on leadership that is essentially all the cause of our problems. Less than 10% of the population can make life extremely miserable for the other 90% kind of thing. Why is that?

I don't feel I did anything to tee off those terrorists as they are called that caused 9/11, but certainly paying the price for it. But somebody did, and would have to be someone in power, like government power where the power is at.

But it's our fault, we prefer to be sheep, so be it. Marrying an alien opened an entirely new world for me, didn't meet any drug dealers in Colombia, all good hard working people, trying to feed their families, educating their children, with high moral values. With our news, thought everyone in Colombia dealt with drugs, just a very small handful.

[Niels Bohr 72]

IP v6 was implemented in Europe first whilst the US was still using the old IP v4. It's strange how new things are adapted outside the US prior the US to have it. Take France for example, they had the internet long before the US was able to linked computers together.

[GabiandVi 34]

IP v6 was implemented in Europe first whilst the US was still using the old IP v4. It's strange how new things are adapted outside the US prior the US to have it. Take France for example, they had the internet long before the US was able to linked computers together.

The reason new things are implemented outside of the US prior to inside the US is usually because the US had an older version first and that system is entrenched so that when a newer version or newer technology is developed, it is too costly or too bulky to implement it in the US.

But what internet did France have before the US was able to link computers together? The US was "linking computers together" over 35 years ago, before the Internet was ever developed. And the Internet is an American creation, so I can't imagine what internet France had before that.

[Niels Bohr 72]

IP v6 was implemented in Europe first whilst the US was still using the old IP v4. It's strange how new things are adapted outside the US prior the US to have it. Take France for example, they had the internet long before the US was able to linked computers together.

The reason new things are implemented outside of the US prior to inside the US is usually because the US had an older version first and that system is entrenched so that when a newer version or newer technology is developed, it is too costly or too bulky to implement it in the US.

But what internet did France have before the US was able to link computers together? The US was "linking computers together" over 35 years ago, before the Internet was ever developed. And the Internet is an American creation, so I can't imagine what internet France had before that.

They had it implemented. It wasn't exactly an internet in today sense. It was more like dumb terminals linked. There was no TCP or UDP protocols, or HTTP Application Layer protocol, or even routing system like we used today. I have to dig up my old books to find out what they had.

Edited October 4, 2009 by Niels Bohr

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

IP v6 was implemented in Europe first whilst the US was still using the old IP v4. It's strange how new things are adapted outside the US prior the US to have it. Take France for example, they had the internet long before the US was able to linked computers together.

The reason new things are implemented outside of the US prior to inside the US is usually because the US had an older version first and that system is entrenched so that when a newer version or newer technology is developed, it is too costly or too bulky to implement it in the US.

But what internet did France have before the US was able to link computers together? The US was "linking computers together" over 35 years ago, before the Internet was ever developed. And the Internet is an American creation, so I can't imagine what internet France had before that.

They had it implemented. It wasn't exactly an internet in today sense. It was more like dumb terminals linked. There was no TCP or UDP protocols, or HTTP Application Layer protocol, or even routing system like we used today. I have to dig up my old books to find out what they had.

[NickD 203]

Was under the impression that our university system developed the internet and Unix that was a public domain operating system and damn good. Somehow with our new defunct anti-trust laws, AT&T got control of Unix and skyrocketed the price on it, didn't maintain it and opened the door for a monopoly that we now know as MonopolySoft, or MS for short. What a history.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Was under the impression that our university system developed the internet and Unix that was a public domain operating system and damn good. Somehow with our new defunct anti-trust laws, AT&T got control of Unix and skyrocketed the price on it, didn't maintain it and opened the door for a monopoly that we now know as MonopolySoft, or MS for short. What a history.

There was the ARPANET the Army had and the UUNET and something else at the University of Michigan. Then one day, there was the Internet. That is all I remember.