[governance] DMP} Statement on Process and Objectives for the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance

[Jovan Kurbalija]

Thank you David, for clarifying this point. Tim, additional 
clarification is in footnote [1]: ...... the UN Charter in the article 
41 specifies that sanctions may include ‘complete or partial 
interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, 
telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance 
of diplomatic relations’. The possibility of ‘deleting a country from 
the Internet’ or cutting the Internet links was not used in any of the 
main international conflicts or sanctions regimes, from the Balkans in 
1990s till the recent one in Syria.

Although the UN Charter provides a legal basis, the possibility of 
stopping services of 'resolving' top level domain of countries under the 
sanctions has never been used.

Tim, on this question...


Did you mean that they would be the rootzone admin and the 
database/manager?  They already host a rootserver (L) and are (via IANA 
function) the DB manager.///


JOVAN: David clarified that ICANN does not host the root server. In the 
blog text, the Verisign option would be covered in "continuing to use 
the current location would require changes in the US national law, in 
order to ensure international inviolability of the root database".  
Since a change in the US law for this type of immunity/inviolability 
could be a complex exercise, the solution for hosting the server by 
ICANN could be simpler, especially if a broader arrangement is made for  
ICANN+  (making ICANN a quasi-international organisation). This could be 
also a solution for immunity for ICANN's role as DB manager.

David, I agree that root zone issue is a symbolic one.  The US 
'deletion’ move is almost as improbable as the chance that the Higgs 
Boson experiment in CERN will create anti-matter field which can siphon 
the Earth through a black hole. But, this probability excited some 
journalist in Geneva (nice Dan Brown style story).

The rootzone question is symbolic and it should be addressed that way. 
Otherwise, we will - at best - continue wasting our time on it or - at 
worst - have it escalating into the major issue in the fast shifting 
political context.


Regards, Jovan



On 12/9/13 2:53 AM, David Conrad wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Dec 8, 2013, at 8:26 PM, McTim <dogwallah at gmail.com> wrote:
>> "The USA has never used this technical possibility to remove a country
>> from the Internet (US DOC authorizes ICANN via an IANA contract, to
>> manage the root zone).[1]"
>>
>> Can you explain how the US could do this as a "technical possibilty".
>> AFAIK, they only ascertain if the change was done according to IANA
>> procedure.  They don't have control over the zone itself.
> I gather the theory is that some part of the US Government would issue some sort of legally binding directive outside of the normal IANA root zone management function. Realistically, I'd imagine that directive would be applied to Verisign, not ICANN since Verisign is the only organization that has the technical capability to change the root zone unilaterally. Of course, it remains unclear whether the root server operators would accept such a change, but I gather we're talking symbology and theory here.
>
>> When you wrote "Such an ICANN+ would both host the root server, and
>> manage the root database."
> I'm not sure what "host the root server" means here.
>
>> Did you mean that they would be the rootzone admin and the database
>> manager?  They already host a rootserver (L) and are (via IANA
>> function) the DB manager.
> There might be a bit of confusion here.  To be explicit in the roles:
>
> - ICANN, as the IANA function operator, validates (in terms of syntax, semantics, and that the request can from an authorized party, i.e., the TLD administrator) root zone change requests and submits those validated requests for authorization to NTIA.  ICANN is _not_ the database manager.
>
> - US Dept. of Commerce, NTIA authorizes those change requests, verifying ICANN has performed the IANA root zone management function appropriately.  Once authorized, the change request is released to Verisign for implementation.
>
> - Verisign, under a cooperative agreement with NTIA, acts as the root zone maintainer.  Verisign accepts the NTIA-authorized root zone change request, implements that change request in the root zone by updating the root zone database, resigns the root zone with the DNSSEC zone signing key (which has been signed by the key signing key maintained by ICANN), and then places the changed and newly signed root zone onto a distribution server, notifying (via the DNS protocol) that a new zone is available.
>
> - The 12 root server operators, either due to the notification sent by Verisign or because of timers built into the root zone, automatically pull the new root zone from the distribution server and place it on their servers (which, in most cases, actually a constellation of instances all over the planet).  For example, ICANN, as one of the 12 root server operators, pulls the root zone from the distribution master server and then pushes it out to the 146 sites (300+ machines last I heard) that respond to DNS queries sent to the "L" root server address.
>
> I hope this clarifies.
>
> Regards,
> -drc
>

-- 

*Jovan Kurbalija, PhD*

Director, DiploFoundation

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*Email: *jovank at diplomacy.edu*| **Twitter:*@jovankurbalija

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