Quote:
Originally posted by a1s@May 15 2006, 10:00 AM
First of all no, USA does not control the internet, but they were the ones who first put it into operation and still have most facilities (per capita) for it.
|
The US does control the internet. It's where it was developed, the US Department of Commerce is the one responsible for the existence of ICANN (and has demonstrated before that it has final say over the "international" body).
The
root servers -- which is what were later referred to -- are also all owned and controlled by either the US Government (including the Department of Defense) or US companies (such as VeriSign, ISC, and ICANN). The root servers are the fundamental component of DNS (which I hopefully shouldn't have to explain) and are the ultimate authority. All DNS servers in the world contact one of the root servers to determine how to resolve domains. Even ccTLDs -- most of which are under control of the country to which they are assigned (or a company based in that country) -- are all dependant upon the root servers.
This has been a *major* source of concern lately in the international community with calls to shift control to the UN. While I do appreciate the pressure to internationalize control, this is a situation in which I side with the US fully and completely (at least for the time being). The US has demonstrated that while controlling what is probably the most crucial component of the modern net that they haven't attempted to control it in ways in which other countries would. For example, should control of the net shift to a country such as China or Germany, restrictions based upon laws in those countries could dramatically alter who is allowed to own/operate a domain or what domains are allowed to called/used for/etc (and before I catch flak, the German anti-Nazi law is what I have in mind).
The net works. While this is an important issue, I think it's a case of not fixing something that isn't broken.