U.S. seeks veto powers over new domain names [CNET News]
Who controls the Internet's archtectural rules? The anwser is complicated and, in at least one case, subject to intense debate by several stakeholders.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a non-profit organization with a contract with the U.S. government to manage and assign IP address blocks and to manage top level domains (.com, .net, .org and the like). Most Internet users are familiar with the most common top level domains (TLDs). ICANN is currently working on plans to allow additional TLDs to become part of standard Internet addressing.
How would these new TLDs work? Well, if a group submits an application for a new TLD and pays a substantial fee, ICANN would have the discretion of creating the TLD and charging the group with the responsibility of doling out the new addresses to companies and individuals seeking them. The proposed TLDs could be anything from .music to .shop, each describing the type of content that could be found on sites with that TLD.
As it turns out, the U.S. government has reservations about ICANN having the unilateral authority to decide which TLDs are approved and has proposed a new process that would allow it or other nations to veto TLDs that are found to be objectionable. The U.S. government, namely the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, believes that if other countries aren't allowed to object to TLD creation, some countries might block entire TLDs, leading to international Internet fragmentation.
For its part, ICANN is working to create consensus among many countries' governments on the TLD creation process. At the end of this month, the organization is holding a two-day meeting aimed at arriving at a compromise solution to the future of Internet addressing.
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