ICANN Reaches Deal on More Freedom with US Department Of Commerce

The US government is giving the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) more freedom. The corporation's three year contract had run out and the US Department of Commerce begrudgingly granted it more freedom over the next three year period.

by Angelique van Engelen

Rather than reporting to the DoC every six months, the corporation negotiated that it will only publish an annual report to the online community. The previous agreement was described in a statement by ICANN as "highly prescriptive". The statement also detailed that the government exerted influence that was not always in the best interests of the online world. But this is set to end. By 2009, the corporation will be completely independent from Washington.

ICANN, which allocates IP addresses, wrote in its statement that "How it works and what it works on is up to ICANN and its community to devise."
The deal makes the corporation somewhat more of a private-sector entity with multi-stakeholder management. A European Union representative confirmed that Europe is going to watch the action closely. A few US senators are opposed to relinquishing control, saying that the US should not let go of its control over the organization before its time.

The international lobby for the United Nations to have the ultimate authority over the corporation is strong and noisy. However a few months ago, the UN bowed down to pressure by the US Bush administration for ICANN to continue to be in charge of domain names. For the time being, the UN will have to make do with participation only in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the organization that the international lobby would like to replace ICANN. The IGF has as yet no real authority or involvement in the day-to-day operations of Internet governance. Its next meeting is scheduled to take place in the second quarter next year in Athens, Greece.