US Goverment Concerns over ICANN Relocation Plans
Written by Chief Editor , Thursday, 08 May 2008
Is ICANN planning on relocating? That question was asked by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell and ranking member Joe Barton, joined by 14 other colleagues who sent an official letter to Commerce Secretary Gutierrez on Tuedsay.
In that letter they started out by praising ICANN’s continued oversight of the international entity charged with administering the Internet. The lawmakers asked the Commerce Department to comment on the possibility of an overseas relocation of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which as we all know, is currently based in Marina Del Ray, California.
Rumors have swirled in recent years that some foreign government and industry stakeholders want ICANN’s headquarters to move to Brussels, Belgium.
The US goverment concerns comes as ICANN’s leaders gradually try to transition the coordination of technical functions of the Web to the private sector. “Any change that threatens the important U.S. role in promoting U.S. commercial and free speech principles on the Internet can only hurt the consumers and businesses that count on this network every day,” they wrote.
The letter requests a response to a handful of questions about ICANN’s future within two weeks time. While ICANN remains the “best option for reaching consensus in an increasingly divided world,” members said the organization should ensure transparency and promote greater accountability in its operations. ICANN constituents meet several times a year and their next meeting is scheduled for June 22-26 in Paris, France, right after the first Domainer Meeting Conference in Europe.
If you ask me, this is just the beginning of a much bigger struggle the US goverment is going to have to answer to as the world continues to unite and demands that ICANN should be an independent organization governed by the United Nations intensify. We will make sure we follow this story closely here on DomainNews.com as it develops.
Source: Written by Chief Editor - DomainNews.com - May 8th, 2008