Begin forwarded message:From: "Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law" <froomkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 30, 2005 4:52:52 PM EDT To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx> Subject: US Drops ICANN/DNS Bombshell (on WSIS?) Reply-To: froomkin@xxxxxxThe US Department of Commerce has announced an unexpected new policy regarding the Domain Name System (DNS) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
In previous pronouncements, the US had indicated that the US would someday release its ultimate control over the 'root' - the file that contains the master list of authorized registries and thus determines which TLDs show up on the consensus Internet and who shall have the valuable right to sell names in them. That day would come if and when ICANN fulfilled a number of conditions spelled out in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Today's announcement says the opposite: the US plans to keep control of the root indefinitely, thus freezing the status quo. Nothing will change immediately as a result. But the timing is weird, coming as it does only a short time before the forthcoming meeting of the UN- sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
More at http://www.discourse.net/archives/2005/06/ us_drops_icanndns_bombshell_on_wsis.html
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A. Michael Froomkin | Professor of Law | froomkin@xxxxxx
U. Miami School of Law, P.O. Box 248087, Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA
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