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Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready?

From RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com>
Newsgroups comp.misc
Subject Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready?
Date 2014-03-17 12:39 +0000
Organization solani.org
Message-ID <lg6qes$939$1@solani.org> (permalink)

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From the «Got Root?» department:
Title: The Internet Is About to Take Its Next Giant Evolutionary Leap
Author: Sam Gustin
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 07:47:34 -0400
Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/timeblogs/nerd_world/~3/yMncl2Uam-c/
Podcast Download URL: http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/1bf50c917fee8778c289fc16128f5baf?s=96&d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96

The U.S. plan to relinquish stewardship of key technical functions that
ensure the Internet runs properly drew praise and criticism over the weekend.
If the process goes smoothly, it shouldn’t affect the day-to-day Internet
experience for users, but the shift, which was announced[1] Friday by U.S.
officials, represents an important development in the evolution of the
Internet. MoreHere's An Updated Tally Of All The People Who Have Ever Died
From A Marijuana Overdose Huffington Post[2]These Disturbing Fast Food Truths
Will Make You Reconsider Your Lunch Huffington Post[3]Savannah Guthrie Is
Married and Pregnant People[4]Analyzing the Nos. 1, potential sleepers and
top players by regional Sports Illustrated[5]'Walking Dead': They did WHAT?!
Entertainment Weekly[6]

Although the U.S. has long intended to give up its role overseeing the system
of managing Internet domain names, the proposed transition has already
attracted[7] critics who fear that the Internet’s free and open nature could
be jeopardized. At the same time, the plan has received positive feedback
from several major technology companies, including Google, AT&T and Verizon.
Popular Among Subscribers[image 9][8]

Make Fun Of Everything
[8]Subscribe[10]

The South’s Red-Hot Town
[11]

Obama’s Trauma Team
[12]

The origins of the Internet date back to the early 1960s, when the U.S.
government funded research that led to the development of “ARPANET,” which
was established by the Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA). ARPANET was eventually connected to other government,
academic and research networks, forming a “network of networks” that would
ultimately become known as the Internet.

Since then, the U.S. government has had an oversight role in the distribution
of numbers that make up Internet addresses, as well as the Domain Name System
(DNS) that translates those numerical addresses into recognizable Internet
names like time.com. For more than a decade, the non-profit Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has performed those
functions under a contract from the Department of Commerce’s National
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

“The DNS is similar to a phone book, where if you know someone’s name, you
can find their number and place a call,” says Laura Denardis, a professor[13]
at American University and the author[14] of The Global War for Internet
Governance. “Most people take this for granted because they’re not aware of
the technical architecture behind the curtain that’s needed to keep the
Internet going.”

It remains unclear what kind of entity will assume stewardship of the
Internet DNS, but the U.S. has made clear that it will “not accept a proposal
that replaces the NTIA role with a government-led or an inter-governmental
organization solution.” That’s because the U.S. does not want any single
government or coalition of governments, like that represented by the United
Nations’ International Telecommunications Union (ITU), to exert undue
influence over Internet governance.

“We need to have some kind of centralized coordination of names and numbers,
because each name and number has to be globally unique,” DeNardis tells TIME.
“Someone has to keep track to make sure there’s not duplication of addresses.
The best case scenario is a balance of power in which multiple stakeholders
play a role.”

The U.S. has been under increasing pressure from other countries to
relinquish its stewardship of the Internet’s technical functions in the wake
of revelations about U.S. Internet surveillance supplied by former National
Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. “The Snowden disclosures served as
a lightning rod to focus attention on this issue,” says DeNardis, although
she was quick to point out that the U.S. role in the Internet DNS is separate
from NSA surveillance activities.

On a conference call Friday, ICANN Chief Executive Fadi Chehade downplayed
Snowden’s role, according[15] to Bloomberg. In truth, the U.S. never intended
for its Internet stewardship to go on indefinitely. As far back as 1997, the
U.S. made clear that its ultimate goal was to privatize the Internet’s
technical functions to support a “multistakeholder” model of governance. The
current U.S. contract expires on September 30, 2015, so the NTIA is asking
ICANN to bring together stakeholders from around the world to craft a
proposal for the next stage of Internet governance.

“The timing is right to start the transition process,” said Assistant
Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Lawrence E.
Strickling. In a statement, NTIA said that it has “communicated” to ICANN
that the proposal must have “broad community support” and ensure the
“security, stability, and resiliency of the Internet DNS” and maintain the
openness of the Internet as a global platform. Importantly, the U.S. will
retain responsibility for the .mil, .gov, and .edu top-level domains.

Predictably, the proposed transition has already begun to be politicized[16].
Following the announcement, Newt Gingrich, the Republican former House
Speaker, tweeted[17]: “Every American should worry about Obama giving up
control of the Internet to an undefined group. This is very, very dangerous.”
He added[18]: “What is the global internet community that Obama wants to turn
the internet over to? This risks foreign dictatorships defining the
internet.”

The proposed transition is also likely to be politicized at an international
level, says Lauren Weinstein, a veteran Internet policy expert[19]. “Most of
the issues involved in this area are primarily technical in nature,” says
Weinstein. “Unfortunately, in today’s international environment, there is a
real risk of this matter turning into a toxic global political football,
which would obviously not be the best situation for making rational decisions
about such complex matters.”

For now, the response from the U.S. private sector has been positive, and
several major technology companies praised the U.S. announcement. “The
internet was built to be borderless and this move toward a more
multistakeholder model of governance creates an opportunity to preserve its
security, stability and openness,” Vint Cerf, Google’s chief Internet
evangelist, said in a statement emailed to TIME.

Len Cali, AT&T’s senior vice president of global public policy, called[20]
the transition “an important step in the ongoing evolution of the global
Internet.” Verizon was similarly upbeat. “We applaud NTIA for recognizing the
global relevance of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions
and the current maturity of multi-stakeholder frameworks,” Craig Silliman,
Verizon’s senior vice president for public policy, said[21] in a statement.

DeNardis is optimistic that the transition will go smoothly, but points out
that there isn’t even a proposal on the table to replace the U.S. as steward
of the DNS. “I expect that everything will go well, but the Devil will be in
the details,” she says. “If everything goes smoothly, everyone should still
be able to watch Orange is the New Black on Netflix.”[image 22][image 23]

Links:
[1]: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/press-release/2014/ntia-announces-intent-transition-key-internet-domain-name-functions (link)
[2]: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/03/marijuana-overdose_n_4538580.html (link)
[3]: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/20/fast-food-truths_n_4296243.html (link)
[4]: http://feeds.people.com/~r/people/headlines/~3/_rcn4tAtPWg/0,,20797450,00.html (link)
[5]: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/-college-basketball-mens-tournament/news/20140316/ncaa-tournament-regional-breakdowns-march-madness/?xid=si_topstories (link)
[6]: http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/03/16/walking-dead-the-grove/?xid=time-partner (link)
[7]: Although the U.S. has long intended to give up its role overseeing important technical aspects of the Internet, the proposed transition has already attracted critics who fear that the Internet's free and open nature could be jeopardized. At the same time, the plan has received positive feedback from major Internet service providers, including AT&T and Verizon, which both issued statements of support.  The (link)
[8]: http://time.com/22993/key-and-peele-make-fun-of-everything/?pcd=pw-pas (link)
[9]: http://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/ideascover.jpg?w=560 (image)
[10]: https://subscription.time.com/storefront/subscribe-to-time/link/1004870.html (link)
[11]: http://time.com/13819/the-souths-red-hot-town/?pcd=pw-pas (link)
[12]: http://time.com/10228/obamas-trauma-team/?pcd=pw-pas (link)
[13]: http://lauradenardis.org/ (link)
[14]: http://www.amazon.com/The-Global-War-Internet-Governance/dp/0300181353 (link)
[15]: On a conference call Friday, ICANN Chief Executive Fadi Chehade downplayed Snowden's role, according to Bloomberg. In truth, the U.S. never intended for its Internet stewardship to go on indefinitely. As far back as 1997, the U.S. made clear that the ultimate goal was to privatize the technical functions to support a "multistakeholder" model of Internet governance. The current U.S. contract expires on September 30, 2015, so the NTIA is asking ICANN to bring together stakeholders from around the world to craft a proposal for the next stage of Internet governance.  "The timing is right to start the transition process," said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Lawrence E. Strickling. In a statement, NTIA said that it has "communicated" to ICANN that the transition proposal must have "broad community support" and ensure the "security, stability, and resiliency of the Internet DNS" and maintain the openness of the Internet as a global platform. Importantly, the U.S. will retain responsibility for the .mil, .gov, and .edu top-level domains. (link)
[16]: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/internet-transition-triggers-gop-backlash-104698.html (link)
[17]: https://twitter.com/newtgingrich/status/444592735983390720 (link)
[18]: https://twitter.com/newtgingrich/status/444608973455384576 (link)
[19]: http://www.vortex.com/lauren (link)
[20]: http://www.attpublicpolicy.com/international/the-continuing-evolution-of-the-global-internet/ (link)
[21]: http://publicpolicy.verizon.com/blog/entry/verizon-supports-global-multi-stakeholder-process-for-domain-names (link)
[22]: http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=time.com&blog=1359921&post=25931&subd=timedotcom&ref=&feed=1 (image)
[23]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/timeblogs/nerd_world/~4/yMncl2Uam-c (image)

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Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015.  Ready? RS Wood  <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-17 12:39 +0000
  Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015.  Ready? Randy Westlund <Vorzakir@invalid.invalid> - 2014-03-17 15:54 +0000
    Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015.  Ready? Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2014-03-17 16:10 +0000
    Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015.  Ready? "Julio Di Egidio" <julio@diegidio.name> - 2014-03-17 21:47 +0000
      Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015.  Ready? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-18 09:10 +0000
        Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015.  Ready? "Julio Di Egidio" <julio@diegidio.name> - 2014-03-18 11:55 +0000
  Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-03-17 22:23 +0000
    Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? "John" <j@j.j> - 2014-03-18 09:34 -0700
      Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2014-03-18 17:48 +0000
        Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-18 18:28 +0000
          Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Johny B Good <johnny-b-good@invalid.ntlworld.com> - 2014-03-18 19:27 +0000
            Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-18 22:03 +0000
              Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2014-03-18 22:26 +0000
                Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2014-03-19 14:12 +0100
                Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2014-03-19 12:18 -0500
                Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? "John" <j@j.j> - 2014-03-19 13:26 -0700
        Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2014-03-19 01:46 +0100
        Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-21 12:39 +0000
          Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2014-03-21 13:27 +0000
            Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2014-03-21 16:12 +0100
              Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-21 15:32 +0000
          Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2014-03-21 16:07 +0100
            Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2014-03-21 15:18 +0000
              Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Johny B Good <johnny-b-good@invalid.ntlworld.com> - 2014-03-21 23:26 +0000
            Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2014-03-21 18:15 +0000
            Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> - 2014-03-22 09:51 -0400
              Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2014-03-22 13:54 +0000
                Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2014-03-22 15:07 +0000
      Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-03-18 19:14 +0000
    Re: Root DNS ceded to ICANN in 2015. Ready? Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2014-03-19 08:08 +0000

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