Last week the US government announced that its Department of Commerce - and not ICANN - would be the ultimate ‘decider’ of issues relating to the maintenance of the dot com domain:
“Under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding with ICANN, any changes made to the current .com Registry Agreement must be approved by the [US] Department of Commerce”
Its fact sheet goes on to explain that Verisign – the agency that deals with dot com registration, pricing and regulation – must obtain written permission from the US Department of Commerce before any amendments can be made to pricing or renewals. Verisign previously liaised directly with ICANN on such matters.
The move will be seen as a major blow to the spirit of last month’s multi-party discussions at the Internet Governance Forum in Athens. What’s more, the United States isn’t showing any signs of budging on this issue in the foreseeable future – its power has been extended indefinitely.
The significance of this shouldn’t be underestimated – the Internet Governance Project notes that dot com is the most valuable internet top level domain, accounting for about 40 per cent of the global market.
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I personally think that developing countries should develop their own dot com and cut their links with US dominated internet governance.
It will benefit them in the long run, breaking the vicious control of the US on each and every matter of the free world.
Posted by: Hamad | 11 December 2006 at 02:57 AM