back to article US cedes control of net governance

After a long diplomatic wrangle, ICANN today won independence from the US government. The expected announcement ends an era of US dominance of the DNS system. ICANN - a non-profit organisation - will now become "independent and not controlled by any one entity". Ties to the Department of Commerce won't be completely severed …

COMMENTS

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  1. Red Bren
    Thumb Up

    Dear Uncle Sam

    Ta very much for the interweb!

  2. Justin Clements

    Horrifically bad day for the internet

    Bad day for the internet.

    Expect all sorts of whacked up Governments to want to control what you see or do on the internet.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Good

    Hopefully this will draw a line under the flamewars that this issue has ignited in the past.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Woo Hoo!

    Now repressive regimes can have a say in the running of the Internet!

  5. James Butler
    FAIL

    Woohoo!

    Finally! At last, we will no longer need to fret that ICANN is being controlled by evil, secret US government agencies with a hidden agenda ... deceptively restricting tLD rolllouts and forcing everyone to use Latin character sets ... keeping the lid on all of those cool new domain-related thingies that the other countries have been trying to get adopted, only to fail under the obviously obstructionist and deeply flawed organization that has been running things up to this point. Finally every other nation can get their mitts on the process in meaningful ways ... bringing their own perspectives and prejudices into the process, making it smoother and better for everyone. It's becoming the United Nations of Domain Registrations! Things are really gonna start moving, now! Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! Frickin' AMEN!

    Right?

  6. bexley

    good news

    I'm going to hazard a guess that the posters above me are all americans

    Regardless of what this may mean, the point is that no one country has the right to control the Internet. the alternative may not be perfect but it is a step in the right direction.

  7. Matthew Ellen

    Serve?

    "Vint Cerf commented: "[The agreement] fulfils a long-standing objective of the original formation of Icann: to create an organisation that can serve the world's interest in a robust, reliable and interoperable internet.""

    Is that what ICANN will do, or will they continue to act as a way to control what people can and can't access?

  8. Matthew Glubb
    Flame

    @Woo Hoo!

    How is that any different from when the US Government was controlling ICANN?

  9. Yorkshirepudding
    Pint

    so......

    ICANN Has Dot Comz?

  10. CD001

    @James Butler

    Substitute ICANN for Government in general and you're arguing that a dictatorship is better than democracy? Personally I'd be tempted to agree with that if I was the dictator in question of course - at least dictators get things done (granted, normally not the things you'd WANT done but ... )

  11. Dan Hall

    Great

    Now, not only will the U.S. prevent .xxx type TLDs, but Germany and France will prevent registration of Nazi-related domain names (even those that seek to bury the National Socialists, not honor them), China will block Tienanmen-square domains, Zimbabwe will block domains about white farmers being killed, and every tin-opt regime will get to have their two cents.

    The point to keep in mind (but it's too late now) is not that U.S. control of ICANN was perfect, or even really that good. The point is that having one country (a democracy with a history of supporting freedom of speech) basically overseeing things was better than the mess we're likely to see going forward.

    So long, Internet free speech! We hardly knew &*%$ NO CARRIER

  12. James Butler
    Thumb Down

    @CD001

    Thanks for the illustration of the typical blindingly poor understanding of how ICANN has worked, up to this point.

    What, specifically, are you referring to with your "dictatorship" comment? And how does that differ from the process now being adopted? Are you implying that ICANN was a "dictatorship"? Is it simply because now there will be even more global players, not just the varied lot that has comprised ICANN's board and operational unit to-date? What are some of the things ICANN has done "badly", in your opinion, that will now be done "better" as a result of this change? Do you even have any idea what ICANN is, or how it is structured, or what, exactly, being "under the control" of the US government has meant to the activities it engages in?

    I think you don't know what you are talking about, and are just jumping on the anti-American bandwagon armed with the barest awareness of what this corporation's structural modification means to the rest of the world.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    So theregister.xxx ?

    Some content I read here, would definitely fit better on a .xxx site :-)

  14. bexley

    @ Dan Hall

    i see your point, why not run it by (shudder) committee - like the UN but without all the unfair bullshit. So that bans have to be voted on and approved.

    So if Zimbabwe wanted to ban websites about the white farms then they would have to get it approved by a majority.

    just wanted to ban it in their own country then i guess that's up to them.

  15. Solomon Grundy
    Badgers

    No Matter

    This is a touchy-feely stuff to make little countries feel better. The U.S. Dept. of Commerce still has a seat on the board and that means that no one else will have much of a say.

    ICANN will never be allowed to leave the U.S. and will always remain under their thumb.

    Not that it matters anyway, no matter where you live your government is already censoring what you can and cannot access online.

    Fuck it. We really don't need the Internet anyway - life was better before it came along.

  16. Mikeblogs

    ICANN and EU Telecoms prison package

    Vivian Reding declared herself the number 1 defender of net neutrality in Europe, as the same time as telling us that the non-neutrality clauses in the EU Telecoms package will strenghten neutrality.

    I am sure ICANN was an imperfect entity, but it would be good to that any joining Board members had as a minimum agreed to support the Internet principles.

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