independent cable-TV as well. My father was an amateur radio
operator when radio first got started, and his stories about the
fight to stop amateur radio station licensing sounded very much like
the present struggle.
I'm more than familiar with those struggles.
This why you want to avoid the characterization
of being a public resource - and why conversely
the GAC has adopted an international agreement
stating Internet Name and Number systems are
public resources. Being a public resource
means that governments will ultimately control
it.
The radio spectrum was progressively made a
public resource and brought under increasingly
more extensive regulatory regimes by the ITU
beginning in 1903 and the US Dept of Commerce
in 1912. (In fact, my call sign was the 18th
issued by them in August 1912.)
ICANN's regulatory regime bears a striking
similarity to what ultimately occurred with
respect to the use of the radio spectrum.
--tony
W3AR (and President of the Detroit
Amateur Radio Association. 1964-65)
