[governance] USG on ICANN - no movement here

[Jeffrey A. Williams]

Karl and all,

  Percisely!  For better or worse, there really isn't an alternitive
government entity that can step in for DOC/NTIA even if they
are not as good at doing the oversight that one would prefer.

Karl Auerbach wrote:

> Michael Gurstein wrote:
>
> > It seems to me that the issue here is whether the term "neo-imperialism"...
>
> Or, to be more in vogue, "i-imperalism" or "e-imperalism". ;-)
>
> As my mailbox fill and overflows with the gnashing of teeth and
> shredding of garments about the US Dept of Commerce statement certain
> "facts-of-life" come to my mind:
>
> 1. It is not at all clear that the US Dep't of Commerce has the legal
> authority to bind the US to any path in this area whatsoever.  (But my
> government has over the last couple of decades rather lost the notion
> that legal authority is a prerequisite for anything, sigh.)
>
> 2. But even if the US Dep't of Commerc does not have the legal
> authority, certainly the US gov't as a whole *does* have the power to
> impose its will on ICANN, which exists as a legal entity in California
> which, last time I looked, is still part of the US.  And even if ICANN
> were not a creature of US law there is still the fact that Verisign,
> which currently has the contract to do the root zone, isn't going to
> move from the US any time soon.
>
> 3. The political situation here in the US makes it pretty much
> impossible for any political animal in gov't to advocate, or even simply
> overlook, any path that would take the ultimate lever of control out of
> US hands.  The 1950's may be a long time ago to some of us, but the US
> gov't still wonders "who is the man who lost China" and fears being
> labeled as having "lost the internet".  Yes, our gov't needs adult
> supervision, but that's been true ever since 1789.  Nobody should expect
> that situation to change soon no matter what happens in our fall
> election this year.
>
> 4. There *is* a solution that simply causes all of this to vanish - and
> that solution has, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, always been at our
> fingertips (or in her case, her toe-tips):
>
> There is no reason whatsoever that the internet can not have multiple,
> consistent root systems, each offering up its own perception of the
> proper set of top level domains (disputes over conflicts of names of
> TLDs would be handled by exactly the same international mechanisms used
> today to deal with global brand names, and besides, if you or your ISP
> don't like what one root zone offers you can simply use one you like
> better.)
>
> That system can work, and work without chaos, and it is quite in line
> with the way that we work as humans in a multi-lingual world.  It is
> only our own mental blocks that prevent this from happening and
> obviating any single overlord of names on the internet.
>
>                 --karl--
>
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Regards,

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