Cato Inst wrote,
> ICANN was created to administer basic rules for the Internet such as those
> determining how domain names are distributed.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) is a new, private, non-profit, international corporation
formed by the global Internet community to assume responsibility
for managing Internet **technical coordinating functions** including
domain-name system (DNS) anagement, IP address block
allocation, the coordination of the assignment of technical protocol
parameters, and root server system management.
ICANN was created in response to the , "Management of Internet
Names and Addresses," a U.S. Government "White Paper" issued
in June 1998, that invited the global Internet community to form a
new, private sector organization to undertake management of
Internet domain-name system functions.
The fact that so far it is the only corporation to respond does not
give ICANN any kind of mandate to determine how domain names
are "distributed." In the context of registrar accreditation, the
proposal to include compulsory arbitration is bad enough "mission
creep"; that "guidelines" of what constitutes permissible names
are being enunciated by an "appointed interim board" (one would
call it a junta in cartain other administrative circles) rather than by
any representation of Internet users suggests that more than one
democratic principle is being -- has already been -- overrun. Like
Clinton bombing Belgrade without even intending to ask Congress
to declare war, now its money versus the common people (hmmm,
not so different, at that!)
Btw, the simple *technical* solution to all this is to discontinue the
DNS -- a relic, after all, from the days when people actually relied
on their own memories to "enter" an IP address, and on spiral
notebooks to track who maintained which system. Cut-and-paste,
drag-and-drop make such aides-memoire utterly irrelevant. (One
might surmise that they are doomed even as advertising, as
reading itself becomes progressively obsolete.) ICANN has
absolutely no business in this arena, whatsoever -- and I wont be
surprised if it soon finds itself without any business at all. "The Net
perceives censorship as damage, and routes around it."
kerry
