The Group that assigns Internet domains rejects the control of the United Nations

26 May The Group that assigns Internet domains rejects the control of the United Nations

The head of the organization that assigns the worldwide, Internet addresses such as ‘. com ‘and’. net ‘, was against the proposals about putting the group, now overseen by the United States, under United Nations control or any other international body.

The Internet Corporation for assigned names and numbers (ICANN), located in the Centre of the world debate about who should manage Internet, is the closest thing to a central authority that has the vast system of computer networks interconnected.

Countries such as Iran and Brazil claim that ICANN, founded in 1998 and covered by the U.S. Department of Commerce and still partially depending on the American Government, should assign skills to a global body such as United Nations.

“If you think about that proportion, or pace, in technology, it is simply much faster than the majority of traditional forms of political development could adapt to, said Rod Beckstrom,  CEO of ICANN.

Being subject to multilateral State control would deprive agility to ICANN, said the officer, and would make the rapid development of technologies such as the domain names in Arabic characters that are providing a growing demand on the Internet, more unlikely.

“Is hard to imagine any replacement (of the current system), and I think I can say this objectively in a way because I have also worked for the Government,” he said, adding that such a decision would depend on the ICANN Directors.

Even so, the American Government agreed last September to several changes in the Corporation, which already does not respond only to the United States in an effort to give more voice to the international organizations.

The agreement created an international team to oversee the work of ICANN and plans to issue its initial recommendations at year end. Basic guides have also been developed to give greater transparency to the group.

In 2003 several countries suggested that ICANN should be subject to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an agency of the United Nations, but that idea stumbled upon the opinion that the private sector is more able to manage the network address system.

The contract that gives authority to ICANN over much of the Internet basic tasks, such as assigning IP addresses (abbreviation forIP addresses ), should be reviewed next year.

(from Vlex.com)