Sound Destruction

Friday, October 21, 2005




U.S. lawmakers are urging the Bush administration to resist a push from other countries to shift control of the Internet to the United Nations, arguing that such a move would stifle innovation and free expression. (story here)

Though no one country controls the Internet as a whole, the U.S. Commerce Department maintains final authority over the domain-name system that matches easy-to-remember names like "example.com" with the Internet Protocol numbers that are assigned to each computer on the Internet. That system is overseen by a California-based nonprofit group called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN.

Since it was founded in 1998, ICANN has introduced competition into the market for domain names and expanded the number of names available by introducing new suffixes like .info and .biz. as alternatives to standbys like .com and .org.
But the nonprofit body has also been plagued by infighting, charges that it does not operate in a transparent manner, and the perception that it is cowed by the U.S. government.



Wait for it.....

ICANN agreed to suspend work on a proposed .xxx domain name for sex sites after the Bush administration objected in August. Despite the nonprofit group's flaws, "I don't think anyone would argue that there is any demonstrated effort to limit access, to control content, to limit growth. If anything ICANN has overseen a tremendous positive expansion," Coleman said.

Well there you go!

4 Comments:

Blogger Doug The Una said...

Great post, Sar. And I love the cartoon.

11:08 AM  
Blogger Jack Burden said...

I refuse to accept the authority of an agency that sounds like a drug-store-book-rack self help book.

1:53 PM  
Blogger dddragon said...

I didn't realize all that was going on, I'll have to look into it.

3:42 PM  
Blogger Sar said...

Doug - Thanks! I do too. :)

Jack - ICANN, that's pretty funny there Jack.

Dddragon - I had no idea either until I stumbled across this article.

Nedhead - I'm also not sure the UN is necessarily the ideal governing body, but I'm certain a global influence would make more sense than the hypocritical and defiantly independent influence of America as evidenced in today's political climate.

8:53 PM  

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