[AfrICANN-discuss] ICANN be independent

[Anne-Rachel Inné]

Hi Tim,
No, it is not posted and will not be until I believe next week.
Apparently The Economist found a source that would share considerable detail
on 'the Affirmation".

Was miffed too :-).
ar


On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 6:09 PM, McTim <dogwallah at gmail.com> wrote:

> HI,
>
> Is the "Affirmation" published yet?
>
> I can't find it online.
> --
> Cheers,
>
> McTim
> "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route
> indicates how we get there."  Jon Postel
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 7:26 PM, annerachel <annerachel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Regulating the internet
>> ICANN be independent
>>
>> Sep 24th 2009
>> From *The Economist* print edition
>> America is poised to loosen its control over cyberspace
>>
>> FORTY years ago this month American academics sent the first message over
>> the ARPANET, a military network that was the precursor of today’s internet.
>> A legacy of those efforts is that the American government continues to
>> control the internet’s underlying technology—notably the system of
>> allocating addresses. This is about to change, albeit slightly.
>>
>> For the past decade America has delegated some of its authority over the
>> internet to a non-profit organisation called the Internet Corporation for
>> Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)—an arrangement other countries have
>> complained about, both because they have little say in it and because
>> ICANN’s management has occasionally proved erratic. ICANN’s latest mandate
>> is due to expire on September 30th. The day before, a new accord is planned
>> to come into effect, whereby America will pass some of its authority over
>> ICANN to the “internet community” of businesses, individual users and other
>> governments.
>>
>>  Previous agreements had maintained close American oversight over ICANN
>> and imposed detailed reforms, but the latest document, called an
>> “affirmation of commitments”, is only four pages long. It gives ICANN the
>> autonomy to manage its own affairs. Whereas prior agreements had to be
>> renewed every few years, the new one has no fixed term.
>>
>> The agreement sets up oversight panels that include representatives of
>> foreign governments to conduct regular reviews of ICANN’s work in four
>> areas: competition among generic domains (such as .com and .net), the
>> handling of data on registrants, the security of the network and
>> transparency, accountability and the public interest—the only panel on which
>> America will retain a permanent seat. But there are no penalties if ICANN
>> fails to heed its new overseers short of a termination of the accord.
>>
>> The changes at ICANN come at a time when the number of addresses is set to
>> expand dramatically. Next year ICANN plans to allow the creation of many
>> more domains. There are currently 21 generic ones in addition to the 280
>> country suffixes (such as .uk for Britain). ICANN also intends to authorise
>> domain names in other scripts, which will allow entire web addresses to be
>> written in languages such as Chinese and Arabic.
>>
>> All this is controversial. Firms that have already spent a fortune to
>> protect their brands online fear that the expansion will create a huge legal
>> quagmire. Some American politicians are backing calls from trademark holders
>> to call it off. Yet the firms that register new addresses support new
>> domains. There are nearly 200m internet addresses in use (see chart), which
>> are thought to generate more than $2.5 billion a year in renewal fees. New
>> domains will add to that.
>>
>> The new set-up at ICANN will not placate countries such as China, Russia
>> and Iran that want America to relinquish control entirely. However ICANN
>> runs itself, it cannot alter the basic piping of the internet without
>> America’s approval under another agreement that lasts until 2011. Even then,
>> that is unlikely to change.
>>
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>>
>>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Anne-Rachel Inne
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