Posted on Wed, Sep. 20, 2006
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/15565339.htm
U.S. to extend pact with Internet oversight firm ICANN
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Commerce Department said Wednesday it will
extend its oversight of the California organization that handles domain
name policies, while finding ways to improve the group's accountability
and transparency.
John Kneuer, the department's acting assistant secretary for
communications and information, said the government's current agreement
with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers works and
should continue.
Commerce plans to renew a memorandum of understanding with ICANN, but it
will likely add provisions designed to address complaints that the group
is sometimes too secret and makes decisions that don't reflect the
Internet community at large, Kneuer said.
The current agreement expires at the end of the month, but neither Kneuer
nor Paul Twomey, ICANN's president and chief executive, provided details
about the length of such an extension or about any changes.
ICANN, based in Marina del Ray, Calif., with international board members,
was selected in 1998 to handle the Internet's addressing issues, including
the key directories that help Web browsers and e-mail programs find other
computers on the Internet.
The U.S. government, which funded the Internet's early development, kept
veto powers over ICANN decisions, though it has stayed largely hands-off
in day-to-day operations.
A key question remains to what extent that will continue with a renewal.
Many have called for Commerce to wield even less oversight of ICANN, while
not cutting it off completely.
The agreement ``is extremely important in that it dictates the extent to
which the U.S. government will continue to play a unique role in the
oversight of the Internet's Domain Name System,'' David McGuire of the
Center for Democracy and Technology said in an interview. ``This has
become something that's been increasingly a bout of contention
internationally.'
When Commerce last renewed the agreement, in 2003, it suggested ICANN
would be ready for self-sufficiency by Sept. 30, 2006. But even advocates
of independence believe ICANN is still not ready.
``What we ultimately would love to see would be a completely
non-governmental, bottoms-up management body,'' McGuire said. ``At this
point, that's just ... not something we think is necessarily even
viable.''
Paul Kane, chairman of an organization for mostly European country-code
domain suffixes, said Commerce still must guide ICANN to revamp its
internal structures and enhance participation among its constituents, such
as civil society.
Otherwise, he said, ICANN risks becoming irrelevant, and its duties could
be taken over by another organization entirely, potentially letting the
world's governments meddle even more with the Internet.
In recent years, many countries frustrated with U.S. control of a global
resource have called for a takeover by an international body like the
United Nations, but the United States resisted and during a U.N. summit in
November won an endorsement from world leaders for keeping control.
Instead, the United States agreed to join in a newly created international
forum to discuss matters ICANN wouldn't normally handle. That forum is
scheduled to convene in Athens Oct. 30 to Nov. 2.
Kneuer told a Senate Commerce subcommittee Wednesday that stakeholders who
had submitted comments on the government's agreement with ICANN generally
favored the Commerce Department's continued involvement but wanted ``a
more specific focus on transparency and accountability in ICANN's internal
procedures and decision-making processes.''
Christine Jones, general counsel for domain registration company
GoDaddy.com Inc., recommended the pact's renewal with a roadmap for ICANN
``to regain the confidence of the community it serves.''
She complained to the Senate panel that ICANN's recent decision to extend
a contract with VeriSign Inc. to manage ``.com'' and ``.net'' names came
without enough input from the Internet community.
Other critics have complained that many decisions take place behind closed
doors, with minutes from meetings often late and incomplete.
Twomey defended the extent to which ICANN discloses its dealings but
acknowledged the available materials are ``not easy to understand.'' He
said one of ICANN's top priorities will be to make such issues and
decisions easier for participants to digest.
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Associated Press Internet Writer Anick Jesdanun contributed to this story
from New York.
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On the Net:
Department of Commerce:
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/domainhome.htm
Internet Governance Project: http://www.internetgovernance.org
European domain group: http://www.centr.org
Internet Governance Forum: http://www.intgovforum.org