[133638] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Net-Neutrality or Net-Neutered?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Conrad)
Wed Dec 15 00:00:58 2010
From: David Conrad <drc@virtualized.org>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTikwF+_H_c1hmVtYjqAEOmw8E6O2C4w6MWhsz31P@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:00:08 -1000
To: Beavis <pfunix@gmail.com>
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
On Dec 14, 2010, at 6:20 PM, Beavis wrote:
> I come across this interesting link.
>=20
> http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=3D4828&tag=3Dnl.e036
http://domainincite.com/icann-had-no-role-in-seizing-torrent-domains/
> Is ICANN really that susceptible to govt. pressure?
Ignoring the fact that ICANN wasn't involved in the takedowns, ICANN is =
incorporated in California as a 501c(3) non-profit. As such, it is =
subject to US law, even laws that have impacts on ICANN's attempt to be =
an international organization. If folks show up at ICANN's door with a =
warrant or court order, ICANN, like any other company incorporated in =
the US, must abide.
In addition, ICANN performs the IANA functions under contract to the US =
Dept. of Commerce and in theory, pressure could be brought to bear on =
ICANN via (at least) threats of refusing to renew that contract. =
However, to date, I'm unaware of Commerce applying any sort of direct =
pressure this way (in fact, if Commerce did apply pressure to ICANN to =
further US gov't interests and it came out, it would likely be quite =
detrimental to US Gov't efforts in places like the ITU).
Looking outside the US, ICANN has an advisory committee called the =
"Government Advisory Committee". ICANN, in theory, doesn't have to =
listen to the GAC (they're an "advisory" committee after all), but to =
paraphrase George Orwell, some advisory committees are more equal than =
others.
> I only see chaos ahead specially with ipv6 coming into the scene.
Well, yes, I expect there to be a bit of chaos, but not really related =
to the P2P DNS stuff (if coming up with a non-hierarchical replacement =
for the DNS was easy, it'd have been done ages ago): IPv4 free pool =
exhaustion, IPv6 deployment, new generic TLDs, internationalized TLDs, =
etc... interesting times ahead.
Regards,
-drc
