U.N vs. The Internet

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

washingtonpost.com

U.N. Summit to Focus on Internet
Officials to Discuss Shifting of Control to International Body

By David McGuire
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, December 5, 2003; Page E05

Leaders from almost 200 countries will convene next week in Geneva to 
discuss whether an international body such as the United Nations should be 
in charge of running the Internet, which would be a dramatic departure from 
the current system, managed largely by U.S. interests.

The representatives, including the heads of state of France, Germany and 
more than 50 other countries, are expected to attend the World Summit on 
the Information Society, which also is to analyze the way that Web site and 
e-mail addresses are doled out, how online disputes are resolved and the 
thorny question of how to tax Internet-based transactions.

Many developing nations complain that the world's most visible Internet 
governance body -- the U.S.-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names 
and Numbers (ICANN) -- does not adequately represent their interests and 
should be scrapped in favor of a group allied with the United Nations.

A nonprofit company based in Marina del Rey, Calif., ICANN oversees the 
Internet's addressing system under an agreement with the U.S. government. 
The U.S. private sector controls about 85 percent of the Internet's 
underlying infrastructure.

"Because this is taking place in a U.N. summit, the commercial sector is 
not yet fully aware of the implications this has for the Internet," said 
Marilyn S. Cade, director of Internet and e-commerce, law and government 
affairs at AT&T Corp.

Companies such as AT&T say the Internet has benefited from ICANN's ability 
to set policies and resolve disputes quickly with minimal government 
oversight, but some countries complain that the United States wields too 
much control over ICANN and that the body is unresponsive to their needs.

"That sentiment is very much out there . . . and although [ICANN] has 
evolved and has tried to bring in a lot of engagement from a lot of places, 
there have to be ways to open up the process even a little bit more," said 
Sarbuland Khan, head of the United Nations' Information and Communications 
Technology Task Force.

Khan said world governments, for instance, have no central authority to 
coordinate rules for Internet security and taxing online transactions.

He added that the U.N. is not trying to transfer ICANN's powers to its own 
International Telecommunications Union (ITU), as some countries have 
advocated, but he conceded that such recommendations would be on the table 
in Geneva.

ICANN Chairman Vinton G. Cerf said the group has been unfairly made the 
focal point of all criticism relating to Internet administration, even in 
areas where it was never intended to have a say.

"The bizarre argument that gets made: What ICANN does is Internet 
governance, and since ICANN doesn't deal with all those other issues, it's 
not doing its job and let's replace it with the ITU," Cerf said.

Cerf said that the United Nations could address Internet security and 
taxation, but should leave control over the Internet's addressing system to 
ICANN.

That is the point of view of the U.S. government, which will send 
representatives to the Geneva meeting.

"We believe that Internet governance should continue to be coordinated and 
led by the private sector, and we remain committed to working with ICANN to 
ensure that Internet governance remains balanced among all stakeholders," 
said Clyde Ensslin, a spokesman for the Commerce Department, which oversees 
ICANN.

Tom Galvin, director of government relations for U.S. Internet giant 
VeriSign Inc., said the meeting could help resolve lingering questions 
about how much power ICANN should have.

VeriSign administers the .com and .net Internet domains and is overseen by 
ICANN. The two organizations have clashed repeatedly since ICANN's launch 
in 1998.

Khan said the main purpose of the conference is to agree on a set of goals 
for promoting improved Internet governance and development. The ITU won't 
made its final policy decisions until the second half of the summit 
meeting, set to take place in Tunis, Tunisia, in 2005.

David McGuire is a reporter for washingtonpost.com

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