Intellectual Property Law

Independence - will US say ICANN can?

By Ilanah

ICANN, the body responsible for overseeing the domain name system has written to the US Government asking for its independence according to the BBC. The organisation was set up under a Memorandum of Understanding with the US Department of Commerce, with eventual aim being to shift the domain name system from US Government control to global control. The memorandum set out a task of objectives for ICANN to achieve, after which it would become independent. ICANN argues that those objectives have been achieved early, and so now is the time to decide on the future of ICANN.

The IPKat finds this a tricky one. In an ideal world, a worldwide system should be run by a public body which is worldwide, but the bureaucracy that would create would most likely be startling.

Full post as published by IPKat on January 24, 2008 (boomark / email).