[Infowarrior] - U.S.: No Net governance changes expected

[Richard Forno]

U.S.: No Net governance changes expected

By Anne Broache
http://news.com.com/U.S.+No+Net+governance+changes+expected/2100-1028_3-6150
613.html

Story last modified Tue Jan 16 15:44:04 PST 2007


WASHINGTON--Are tensions over the United States' historic influence over key
Internet management functions a thing of the past?

Two senior Bush administration officials involved in setting Net policy say
that's the case.

At a meeting here organized by the Federal Communications Bar Association,
U.S. Ambassador David Gross and Assistant Secretary of Commerce John Kneuer
said they view the question as settled: No United Nations body will be
exercising additional control over tasks like handing out numeric Internet
addresses or operating the root servers that power the Internet anytime
soon.

They said they were encouraged that the new leadership of the International
Telecommunications Union, a U.N. agency, claims to be more interested in
focusing on promoting cybersecurity and bridging the so-called digital
divide than on setting up a new management structure for the Net, as some
have called for in the past.

"That's very much in harmony with our views," said Gross, whose chief
responsibility is coordinating international communications and information
policy.

In a familiar refrain, the ambassador said that the United States doesn't
believe it's appropriate for the ITU to take on expanded Internet management
responsibilities because the system is fine as is. He predicted that future
international meetings called Internet Governance Forums would center less
on who's managing the Net's technical functions and more on issues like
freedom of speech and multilingualism.

The officials' rosy outlook likely stems in large part from remarks given in
Geneva last week by new ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure, whose term of
office is scheduled to last until 2010.

According to various press reports, Toure, an electrical engineer from Mali,
said at his first press conference that it was not his intention for the ITU
"to take over the governance of Internet." Rather, the international group
plans to forge ahead with the existing set-up, headed largely by the
nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which
remains under the U.S. Department of Commerce's supervision.

Whether those predictions will prove accurate remains to be seen. As
recently as last fall's Internet Governance Forum in Greece, then-ITU
Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi accused the United States of using
"self-serving justifications" to argue that the existing arrangement is the
best.

Representatives from countries such as Tunisia, Cuba, Iran, China and many
less-developed nations also have criticized the current system, charging
that it gives the United States undue influence over the day-to-day
operations of the Internet. Some have suggested the need to create a new
international "superstructure" to dull the United States' influence, and the
topic is expected to be discussed at a U.N. summit in Brazil in late 2007.

For years, the U.S. government has been saying it ultimately intends to
shift ICANN, which has operated under the auspices of the U.S. Commerce
Department since 1998, into the private sector with less government
oversight.

Assistant Secretary Kneuer indicated he also was pleased that the ITU
planned to distance itself from the technical management debate but said
"coordinating the transition of the (domain name system) to the private
sector...remains important for us."

CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh contributed to this report.