28th November, 2002
In an official statement Nominet - the .uk domain name authority - has
called for "a significant rethink of ICANN's mission and how it has
interpreted its mission" and has attacked ICANN's management of the IANA
function.
The statement notes that Nominet "fully supports the decision made by
members of the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) � to withdraw from
the Domain Name Supporting Organisation (DNSO) in order to explore
alternative ways of managing the IANA function and, more generally, the
interests of the ccTLD community."
The running of the domain name system is essentially divided into two
major functions - one concerned with policy and governance and the other
dealing in technical matters such as maintaining administrative
contacts, updating name servers and other administrative tasks - this is
the IANA function mentioned by Nominet. Operation of each element is
awarded on a contractual basis by the US Department of Commerce and, in
recent times, both functions have been carried out by ICANN. However,
the contract for the IANA function is due for renewal in March, 2003 and
there have been rumblings that some ccTLD operators may consider putting
in a bid to run IANA. It is not known whether Nominet would support or
take part in such a move.
In their statement Nominet suggest that ccTLD operators have become
disgruntled partly because it has been perceived that ICANN has
attempted to use its control of IANA to try to force through changes in
policy that would give it more control in the country code space:
The ccTLDs are � disappointed that ICANN has attempted to withhold
performing essential services such as management of changes to
addresses, name servers etc in an attempt to enforce the party concerned
into a contractual relationship which is unacceptable to almost all ccTLDs.
[Another] issue has been ICANN's method of handling of re-delegation
requests, which the country code operators believe should be decided by
the Local Internet Community in consultation with local governments, not
by ICANN.
In addition, Nominet have also expressed concern about the way in which
ICANN is funded:
There have been several well-documented stumbling blocks with the
current ICANN relationship. For example, while the ccTLD operators have
been asked to contribute a third of the budget for the running of the US
Corporation, much of the expenditure is devoted to gTLD issues and
dealing with internal US politics.
Nominet are clearly dissatisfied with ICANN's role & structure and, as
one of the world's top ccTLDs operators, they are in a stronger position
than most to affect Internet policy at the highest levels. Their
statement is a clear indication that they would like to see major
changes in Internet governance in the next few months.
If the suggested bid to run the IANA function were to be successful it
would effectively wrest a significant of amount control of the Internet
away from ICANN. However, the US Department of Commerce may be unwilling
to change the status quo when the contract is renewed. Demys news will
keep you posted in the run up to March's renewal deadline.
http://www.demys.net/news/02_nov_27_nominet.htm
--
Regards,
>>Benny Chandra
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