[governance] ICANN/Verisign new agreement on root transition-important

[Milton Mueller]

Any by the way, this kind of private deal is what still makes me queasy
about ICANN. But Avri's position is not necessarily wrong, it could be
that once released from USG oversight this kind of thing will be less
likely. Or, not. Who knows. But let's be cautious

>>> Milton Mueller 10/26/2005 11:38:01 AM >>>
>>> karen banks <karenb at gn.apc.org> 10/26/2005 7:43:47 AM >>>
hi

>You're right, this is important.

yes, i assume so - but give me the journalist pitch on why ;)

sorry, we're (IGP) working on a paper to be released in a few days.
someone has to set out the specific contractual arrangements
systematically, which we will do. 

The sound bite is that ICANN has bought support from VeriSign in WSIS
(permanent control of .com) and US has strengthened the ICANN regime by
starting to move certain root zone admin functions from Verisign to
ICANN.

Much of the political dynamics of ICANN was fashioned via the rivalry
between VeriSign and ICANN, as mediated by the USG. Basically, VeriSign
had authority over the root, inherited accidentally from its original
InterNIC contract. USG wrested policy authority over the root from NSI
(now Verisign) in oct 1998, and gradually forced verisign to participate
in the icann regime. 

Sitefinder now can be seen as the last great conflict btween ICANN and
VRSN. By settling the sitefinder litigation in a way that gives Verisign
compelte control of .com, and icann control of the root, 
icann buys domestic political support (verisign was always its
strongest domestic critic) and takes a step perhaps toward privatization
of rz management. 

karen

> >>> <ian.peter at ianpeter.com> 10/25/2005 7:16 PM >>>
>posted at
>http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/verisign/root-server-management-transition-agreement-oct05.pdf




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Dr. Milton Mueller
Syracuse University School of Information Studies
http://www.digital-convergence.org 
http://www.internetgovernance.org 

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