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01 July 2005

Annexation "In a worrying U-turn, the US Department of Commerce (DoC) has made it clear it intends to retain control of the internet's root servers indefinitely. It was due to relinquish that control in September 2006, when its contract with overseeing body ICANN ended."

The announcement was made here. Some related links: Internet Governance Caucus, Brazil proposes sweeping Internet Governance reforms and the somehow relevant Brazil, The Gentle Giant Awakes.
post by: gsb at: 09:07 | 4 comments
Um, you can't annex what belongs to you and that you already possess. The stuff that the UN/Brazil wants control of is stuff the US built, and maintains. The UN may ask to have control of it, but the US is by no means obligated to give that control to them. And, although a US dominated DNS system has its problems, there might be changes for the worse with a UN-run system. Germany places strict limitations on Scientology. Will they request that Scientology sites be banned from the web? China does not regard Taiwan as a legitimate nation. Will they attempt to cut Taiwan off from the Internet? Many conservative nations have bans on porn. Will they attempt to ban anything risque? Many nations have bans against defaming their national religion. Will they try to extend the ban to the Internet? It seems to me that although the DNS servers aren't in very good hands, things could be a lot worse.
posted by unreason 01 July | 10:38
i know there's rumors on the internets.
posted by quonsar 01 July | 10:49
They should say, "Sure!" Then they should pull all the plugs and send the servers via sea mail to wherever, leaving whoever to clean up the mess caused by six months of no internet and relieving me of my headache.

You know, it's really nice to go without.

If you want more specifics or coherence or reason, read somebody else's damn comment.
posted by Hugh Janus 01 July | 13:14
I can't believe I'm saying this, but the servers are probably best left in the US. If nothing else, the US constitution is strong enough on free speech that it would be difficult for any real censorship to take place, unlike almost any other country (well, perhaps Russia, but let's not even go there).
posted by dg 03 July | 18:27
Poor Impulse Control. || Is anyone else weirded out by this?

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