[Infowarrior] - New ICANN Chief Defends U.S. Base for Agency That Manages Web

[Richard Forno]

  New Chief Defends U.S. Base for Agency That Manages Web

By ERIC PFANNER
Published: July 12, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/technology/internet/13iht-icann13.html?hpw

PARIS — The U.S.-based agency that regulates Internet addresses,  
facing criticism that it is too America-centric, remains the best  
guardian of a “single, unified, global Internet,” according its new  
chief executive.

Rod Beckstrom spoke after he was announced as the next chief executive  
of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in June.

Rod Beckstrom, a technology entrepreneur and former U.S. government  
Internet security official, took over this month as head of the  
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, succeeding Paul  
Twomey, an Australian.

As use of the Internet expands around the world, there have been  
rising calls for a new way of overseeing some of its basic functions,  
including the allocation of domain suffixes like .com and .org. This  
duty, and other important technical functions, have been in the hands  
of Icann, a private, nonprofit organization based in Marina Del Rey,  
California, for the past decade, under an agreement with the U.S.  
Commerce Department.

“There will always be different voices out there, but the ultimate  
proof that Icann is functioning properly is that the Internet is  
functioning properly,” Mr. Beckstrom said by telephone last week.

One critic of Icann, the European Union media and telecommunications  
commissioner, Viviane Reding, recently called for a severing of  
Icann’s links with the U.S. government when the current agreement with  
the Commerce Department expires this autumn. Instead, she proposed the  
creation of a “G-12 for Internet governance” to oversee an independent  
Icann.

“In the long run, it is not defendable that the government department  
of only one country has oversight of an Internet function which is  
used by hundreds of millions of people in countries all over the  
world,” Ms. Reding said in May.

Ms. Reding also called for the creation of an “independent,  
international tribunal” to review Icann decisions.

Now, any legal challenges generally occur in California courts.

“California law is good law for technology,” Mr. Beckstrom said.

He said that at a recent Icann meeting in Sydney, there had been  
discussion of creating an international subsidiary of the  
organization, possibly based in Switzerland. But he said he would  
oppose efforts to fragment Icann.

“Everyone can’t have it their own way and have it unified,” Mr.  
Beckstrom said. “Part of the power of the Internet is that the  
standards that parties have to agree on are so minimal.”

Icann has moved over the years to give itself a more international  
profile, holding three major meetings a year outside the United  
States. Gatherings are also planned for Seoul in October and Nairobi  
next March.

The organization’s Governmental Advisory Committee, which has  
representatives from more than 80 countries, has been trying to  
broaden its membership. China, for instance, recently agreed to rejoin  
the committee after a five-year absence, Mr. Beckstrom said.

Now he is trying to woo another big holdout, Russia. Mr. Beckstrom  
said he hoped that a plan to allow Internet domain names to be  
rendered in Cyrillic, set to begin next year, would help.

The move to embrace Cyrillic addresses, along with other scripts like  
Arabic and Chinese, is part of a broader drive by Icann to open up the  
domain naming system, an initiative that also has its critics.

The organization plans to start adding large numbers of new address  
suffixes, or “global top-level domains,” next year, making it possible  
to register city or company names like .paris or .nestle.

While Icann says the creation of new addresses will help accommodate  
the international diversification of the Internet, some companies  
worry that the process will make it harder to protect their brand  
names. The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse, a group based in  
Washington and representing multinational marketers, says the  
expansion of domain names could lead to a rise in the practice known  
as cybersquatting.

Joshua Bourne, president of the coalition, called for Icann to “halt  
all current or future policy initiatives” until a commission,  
appointed by the U.S. president or Congress, and consisting of  
government, academic and business representatives, had reviewed its  
operations. Mr. Bourne said Icann was too beholden to companies that  
sell and manage actual domain names on behalf of Web sites.

Mr. Beckstrom is no stranger to conflict. In March, he left his  
previous job, as head of the U.S. National Cyber Security Center, part  
of the Homeland Security Department, saying he feared the National  
Security Agency was seeking too much influence at the center.

Before that, Mr. Beckstrom was a technology entrepreneur, starting a  
company in 1984 that created derivatives trading software, which he  
sold in 1999. He said he intended to take a pragmatic approach to his  
new job, rather than moving Icann in new directions.

“There is a lot to do,” he said. “My focus very much is going to be to  
support the execution of these primary tasks.”