[IP] Senator, Congressmen call for continued U.S. control of Internet
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/10/20/congress.internet.reut/
index.html
Lawmakers urge U.S. to keep control of Web
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. lawmakers are urging the Bush
administration to resist a push from other countries to shift control
of the Internet to the United Nations, arguing that such a move would
stifle innovation and free expression.
"Is it going to become a vehicle for global taxation of domain names?
Are you going to allow folks who have demonstrated a pattern of
suppression of content, are they going to be put in charge of running
this thing?" said Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, sponsor of
a Senate resolution that calls for the Internet's core addressing
system to remain under U.S. control.
Coleman's resolution, along with similar remarks by senior lawmakers
in the House of Representatives, should give a boost to U.S.
negotiators as they prepare for a United Nations summit in Tunisia
next month where the issue will loom large.
Though no one country controls the Internet as a whole, the U.S.
Commerce Department maintains final authority over the domain-name
system that matches easy-to-remember names like "example.com" with
the Internet Protocol numbers that are assigned to each computer on
the Internet.
That system is overseen by a California-based nonprofit group called
the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN.
If other countries refuse to recognize ICANN's legitimacy, Internet
users in different parts of the globe could wind up at different Web
sites when they type "www.example.com" into their browsers.
Countries like Brazil and Iran have argued in a series of meetings
over the past two years that the Internet is now a global resource
that should be overseen by the United Nations or some other
international body.
The European Union withdrew its support of the current system last
month.
The United States has made clear that it intends to maintain control.
In an interview, Coleman said a bureaucratic body like the United
Nations' International Telecommunications Union would slow innovation
and extend its reach beyond the domain-name system. Countries that
censor online content could use the forum to ban free expression
elsewhere, he said.
"I don't think this is mundane. I really think you're talking about
the future of the Internet here," said Coleman, a prominent UN critic
who has overseen a Senate investigation into the UN's oil-for-food
scandal.
Since it was founded in 1998, ICANN has introduced competition into
the market for domain names and expanded the number of names
available by introducing new suffixes like .info and .biz. as
alternatives to standbys like .com and .org.
But the nonprofit body has also been plagued by infighting, charges
that it does not operate in a transparent manner, and the perception
that it is cowed by the U.S. government.
ICANN agreed to suspend work on a proposed .xxx domain name for sex
sites after the Bush administration objected in August.
Despite the nonprofit group's flaws, "I don't think anyone would
argue that there is any demonstrated effort to limit access, to
control content, to limit growth. If anything ICANN has overseen a
tremendous positive expansion," Coleman said.
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