#269652 - 15/11/2005 22:51
Control of the internet
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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news link 1
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Iīm surprised there havenīt been any threads on this already. My personal opinion is the US should maintain control over the root DNS servers, based on the Donīt fix what isnīt broken / Donīt mess with success principle.
Plus I think the UN is more corrupt than the US government, and giving them control will ultimately lead to worldwide taxation.
Furthermore, the internet is just a network that started in the USA. Thereīs nothing stopping other countries from setting up their own network, with their own root DNS servers, with their own ICANN orgainization.
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#269653 - 16/11/2005 00:18
Re: Control of the internet
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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The Internet isn't controlled now by the US, government or otherwise. ICANN happens to exist as an entity in the US, but its board of directors is very international. In fact, ICANN was created to remove control of the Internet from the US government. So, basically, your premise is completely wrong.
In addition, the Internet works as a result of cooperation, not as a result of mandate. We can all choose different DNS root servers now if we wanted to. There have been a number of alternate DNS roots in the past and they've never worked out. ICANN would have to give up its control voluntarily or, maybe, every network provider would have to block them from existance. I don't see either of those happening, so I don't see it as an issue regardless of your premise.
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Bitt Faulk
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#269654 - 16/11/2005 00:25
Re: Control of the internet
[Re: wfaulk]
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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I know ICANN is an international board, but they still ultimately answer to the US government, which is what is at debate right now in Tunisia. Donīt get me wrong, I think things are perfect just the way they are now. The root DNS servers are in the hands of a trusted country with a policy of non-interference. Just imagine if an internet-censoring country like China had a say in any of the decisions ICANN makes.
Quote:
We can all choose different DNS root servers now if we wanted to.
Isnīt that up to your ISP or a very high level ISP? (I donīt know, Iīm asking.)
Edited by Billy (16/11/2005 00:34)
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#269655 - 16/11/2005 00:36
Re: Control of the internet
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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No. It is up to whatever DNS server your computer asks. You could easily set up your own. The issue is that when you buy a domain name, it gets entered into ICANN's root servers. It used to be (and may be again, I haven't checked in a while) that you could download all of that information in one fell swoop, though. So you could set up your own root servers that have all of that agreed-upon information plus whatever else you wanted to put in there, but no one would know about it but you and anyone else you told to use your new root servers. So, the issue is do you want to use the root servers everyone else uses or do you want to use ones that no one else uses? Since the Internet is a cooperative, the former seems a better idea, but there is no technical limitation preventing you from doing otherwise.
There does seem to be a US bias in ICANN, but that seems to be more of an endemic organizational bias than as a result of influence from the US government.
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Bitt Faulk
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#269656 - 16/11/2005 00:46
Re: Control of the internet
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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On the other hand, I don't see that any governmental organization needs to have its hand in the Internet at all. It's a collection of private networks all linked together. Sure, there are a few governmental networks tapped into it, but no moreso than the governmental organizations that use FedEx and UPS.
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Bitt Faulk
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#269657 - 16/11/2005 01:10
Re: Control of the internet
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new poster
Registered: 10/11/2005
Posts: 35
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Quote:
I know ICANN is an international board, but they still ultimately answer to the US government, which is what is at debate right now in Tunisia.
This is simply not true. The US government, in addition to several other governments, is a client of ICANN. The issue is not one of moving responsibility from a US government organization to a UN group (which I would support), but of trying to involve government in a role that is currently performed by the nonprofit, nongoverning ICANN. That would be bad, but as Bitt noted it can't happen without everyone's permission (actually, I bet microsoft could take over the job pretty easily, but fortunately they haven't made the attempt yet).
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MkIIa #40104178, 22GB
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#269658 - 16/11/2005 01:20
Re: Control of the internet
[Re: jpt]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Ugh. Microsoft could pretty easily make every new version of Windows they released query some other set of DNS servers. Thanks for the nightmare.
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Bitt Faulk
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#269659 - 16/11/2005 01:26
Re: Control of the internet
[Re: jpt]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Actually, there is still some Department of Commerce control over ICANN, but the intent is for it to be gone soon. See here.
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Bitt Faulk
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#269660 - 16/11/2005 01:33
Re: Control of the internet
[Re: wfaulk]
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Quote:
Actually, there is still some Department of Commerce control over ICANN, but the intent is for it to be gone soon. See here.
Well, I think that was the original plan, up until recently. Check this out.
Quote:
As such, the United States is committed to taking no action that would have the potential to adversely impact the effective and efficient operation of the DNS and will therefore maintain its historic role in authorizing changes or modifications to the authoritative root zone file....The United States will continue to provide oversight so that ICANN maintains its focus and meets its core technical mission.
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#269661 - 16/11/2005 02:06
Re: Control of the internet
[Re: ]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Hmm. That's concerning.
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Bitt Faulk
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#269662 - 16/11/2005 20:16
Re: Control of the internet
[Re: wfaulk]
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new poster
Registered: 10/11/2005
Posts: 35
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Indeed it looks like I was wrong and the DoC maintains some nominal control of ICANN, but it doesn't appear that it has ever exercised any (nor do I believe it has legal authority to do so). I saw a DoC purchase order to ICANN for maintaining the internet (price: $0) this morning, let's see if I can find it again.
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MkIIa #40104178, 22GB
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#269663 - 17/11/2005 01:33
Re: Control of the internet
[Re: jpt]
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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A deal has been struck Quote:
The World Summit on the Information Society had been overshadowed by a lingering, if not vocal, struggle about overseeing the domain names and technical issues that make the Internet work... Negotiators from more than 100 countries agreed late Tuesday to leave the United States in charge of the Internet's addressing system, averting a U.S.-EU showdown at this week's U.N. technology summit.... U.S. officials said early Wednesday that instead of transferring management of the system to an international body such as the United Nations, an international forum would be created to address concerns. The forum, however, would have no binding authority.... [The summit] has centered largely around Internet governance: oversight of the main computers that control traffic on the Internet by acting as its master directories so Web browsers and e-mail programs can find other computers.... Gallagher said the compromise's ultimate decision is that leadership of the Internet, and its future direction, will remain in the hands of the private sector, although some critics contend that the U.S. government, which oversees ICANN, if only nominally, could still flex its muscle in future decisions.
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#269664 - 17/11/2005 01:38
Re: Control of the internet
[Re: jpt]
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Quote:
Indeed it looks like I was wrong and the DoC maintains some nominal control of ICANN, but it doesn't appear that it has ever exercised any (nor do I believe it has legal authority to do so). I saw a DoC purchase order to ICANN for maintaining the internet (price: $0) this morning, let's see if I can find it again.
Well, there was something in the news recently about a US senator (or representive?) pulling some strings to kill a proposal for a new .xxx top level domain.
However, I think the US government has generally done a good job of not interfering. I trust the US much more than I would trust the UN. I could just see the UN trying to impose internet taxes (world taxes have been proposed before at the UN). Plus if some US politician screws up, someone new will get voted into office to fix the problem, while on the otherhand, half of the UN is run by dictators.
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#269665 - 17/11/2005 02:00
Re: Control of the internet
[Re: ]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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The Internet is already run by taxes of a sort. Some amount of money from your domain name registrations already goes to ICANN.
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Bitt Faulk
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#269666 - 18/11/2005 22:08
Re: Control of the internet
[Re: ]
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Battle for Web Control May Not Be Over Quote:
Battle for Web Control May Not Be Over
Nov 18 2:51 PM US/Eastern
Email this story
By MATT MOORE
Associated Press Writer
TUNIS, Tunisia
The United States claimed victory this week in the contest to keep control of the computers crucial for directing Internet traffic. But approval Friday of a plan to leave Washington squarely in charge hasn't fully ended the debate: The European Union and a host of other countries are suggesting that a new multinational forum, which delegates to a U.N. technology summit also agreed to set up, simply delays the battle for another day.
The forum, they say, still could ultimately leave several countries _ and not the United States alone _ with key decisions about domain names and the computers that direct the Internet's flow of information, commerce and dissent.
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#269667 - 18/11/2005 22:15
Re: Control of the internet
[Re: wfaulk]
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Quote:
The Internet is already run by taxes of a sort. Some amount of money from your domain name registrations already goes to ICANN.
True, but I think this is simply to fund the orgainization to keep it running, right? I mean I donīt think ICANN is making a profit or is spending the income on anything not related to managing the root servers.
Besides, domains are dirt cheap to register compared to their potential worth (currently up to about $1 million for very common english word domains). I picture the UN doing a lot more damage if they get the opportunity.
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