[WSIS CS-Plenary] Internet Gouvernance and the US

[Jean-Louis FULLSACK]

Dear all
Please find hereafter the position of the US Congress and Senate on ICANN and IG.
Best
Jean-Louis Fullsack
CSDPTT-France
Internet
US Congress backs support for ICANN
by CommsDay Global - 26/10/2005 12:10:58

Forward this story to a colleague

The US House of Representatives has followed the Senate and introduced a resolution demanding that core Internet infrastructure remain under US control despite global criticism. Republicans John Doolittle and Bob Goodlatte allied with Democrat Rick Boucher to push the measure, claiming that UN control would stifle innovation and lead to repressive regimes having influence over content and architecture.

"Turning the Internet over to countries with problematic human-rights records, muted free-speech laws, and questionable taxation practices will prevent the Internet from remaining the thriving medium it has become today," John Doolittle said in a statement. 

Earlier this year, the Bush Administration said it would retain control of core infrastructure despite earlier promises to relinquish oversight. Last month, the European Union publicly killed its support for the current framework. A serious rupture could potentially lead to the end of the Internet as we know it, transforming the World Wide Web into a series of localized networks that might not always be accessible based on geography. 

"The United States is uniquely positioned in the world to protect the fundamental principles of free press and free speech, upon which the Internet has thrived," Goodlatte said in a statement. Critics dispute that characterization, noting that the US Commerce Department interfered with ICANN's plans for the proposed .xxx domain in August. 

Meanwhile ICANN and VeriSign have privately settled a long-running dispute over the latter's search engine for mistyped URLs. The agreement ends a legal squabble dating back two years. Under the deal, ICANN and VeriSign will draw up a new contract "intended to balance innovation and business certainty with the need to ensure competition, security and stability in the domain name system."
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/pipermail/plenary/attachments/20051026/33655937/attachment.html