The following is a guest post by Paul Rosenzeig, the founder of the Red Branch PLLC Council and Senior Advisor the Chertoff Group. More information about the author is shown below.
The international governance of the Internet is about to change dramatically. How we allocate domain names is about to change. Few outside a small group of involved and interested parties, took guard. This is unfortunate - since the change will affect internet economy in ways that have yet to be fully understood
The situation
Here a simplified explanation of what is happening. When you came to this site you typed "goldenfrog.com" in your browser. But computers do not speak English. So this name was to be translated into a (IP) Internet protocol address - a string of numbers that look like something like this: 172.316.52.1. Using the IP address that your laptop was able to communicate with the Golden Frog server and retrieve the web page you are reading.
This addressing scheme is known as the Domain Name System (DNS). Someone, however, must be the guardian of the domain name address book - that is, someone must be responsible, ultimately, for the creation of new top level domain names (like .org or .uk or .biz or .xxx) and maintaining a list of who got which name (so that when you type microsoft.com you get the computer giant in Washington and not a hypothetical manufacturer small, soft, fabric dresses in Ireland).
when the network was built, it was so small that a man, Jon Postel, kept track of all the names and numbers - known as the responsibility that the Internet Assigned Number Authority or IANA function. He literally kept the list on index cards in his office.
When work is outgrew Postel, the responsibility was transferred to American institutions since the 190s, the government has discharged a large part of this responsibility to a third party -it contracted function IANA to a nonprofit group, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
ICANN
ICANN is a US non-profit corporation headquartered in Southern California. He was, to summarize and simplify, created in order to be able to contract to perform the IANA function. For nearly the last 15 years, ICANN has contracted with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), part of the Department of Commerce to manage the IANA function.
This contract expires on September 30, 2016, and the US government does not plan to renew it. Instead, (unless Congress intervenes - which is unlikely) the United States will leave ICANN has the responsibility to lead the IANA function on its own. The only condition set for the NTIA transition was that ICANN develop an internal monitoring mechanism and earn the trust of key players in the world.
So now you can see why this change is a big deal. Today, by contract, the NTIA has a role of verification and authorization on how ICANN meets its functions. In other words, in the end, any change to the DNS that ICANN wants to make are subject to review by the US government.
What next?
After the transition takes effect the US government will relinquish that role and ICANN will be on its own - the only limits to its activity will be imposed by its own new process of reporting internal accounts. In other words, a non-profit private company will have a monopoly on a critical economic resource -. Access to internet domain
Although there is no reason at this stage to believe that the transition will necessarily lead to negative consequences, there are reasons to be cautious. Some, for example, fear that ICANN owes to the industry of the registration of domain names, paying hefty fees to ICANN for the privilege to manage (and sell) top level domain systems. When ICANN has recently opened new areas (like .bank and .home), he collected a huge profit. If you accept the maxim that "he who has the gold makes the rules" of the transition to ICANN control can actually be a transition to corporate control through ICANN.
others fear a tyranny of bureaucracy the new reporting structure based on the so-called multi-stakeholder model. - the idea that everyone with an interest can come to the negotiating table. but it's an awfully big table. in the end, the Executive group of ICANN usually takes the initiative and leads the agenda and without verification of the NTIA (if modest, it was in the past) they may have greater leeway to do as they please.
the last threat of increased government influence. Until now, the role of governments has been very modest - they gave advice but has no vote. In the future, they will have an increased role that may (or may not) lead to a more politicized ICANN.
In short, the transition is a leap in the dark (or, if you prefer, an act of faith). We need the US government on the role of international internet steward - something that was probably inevitable - and replaces it with an amorphous organization, nonprofit global. Only time will tell if this is a good idea.
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