EU JOINS IN MOVE TO END US CONTROL OF INTERNET

[Andre Kesteloot]

EU JOINS IN MOVE TO END US CONTROL OF INTERNET 
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- The United States and the European Union clashed in Geneva on 29 
September when the EU proposed stripping the Americans of their 
effective control of the Internet, the International Herald Tribune 
reported.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/09/29/business/net.php
A European decision to back demands by the rest of the world for a new 
international body to govern the Internet caught the Americans off 
balance, the Paris-based paper said.
The Geneva meeting was part of talks over the past two years on devising 
a new way of regulating digital traffic.
"It's a very shocking and profound change of the EU's position," said 
David Gross, the State Department official in charge of international 
communications policy. "The EU's proposal seems to represent an historic 
shift in the regulatory approach to the Internet from one that is based 
on private sector leadership to a government, top-down control of the 
Internet."
Delegates, who had been meeting in Geneva for two weeks, hoped but 
failed to reach consensus on a draft document by 30 September. The 
United Nations organized the World Summit on the Information Society. 
Opened in 2003, it was to conclude this November at a meeting in Tunisia.
In Geneva, the EU made a surprise proposal to set up an 
intergovernmental body that would set principles for running the 
Internet. Currently, the Commerce Department approves changes to the 
Internet's root zone files, which are administered by the Internet 
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, a nonprofit 
organization based in Marina del Rey, CA.
Under the EU proposal, the new body could set guidelines on who gets 
control of what Internet address and could play a role in helping to set 
up a system for resolving disputes. The proposal left open the 
possibility, opposed by Washington, that the UN could have some future 
governing role.
Various groups, including the International Telecommunication Union, a 
UN agency based in Geneva, have suggested that the US government has too 
much control over the Internet.
Under a 1998 memorandum of understanding, ICANN was to gain its 
independence from Commerce in September 2006. But the Bush 
administration said in July that the United States would "maintain its 
historic role in authorizing changes or modifications to the 
authoritative root zone file."
Delegates said further talks would be needed before the Tunisia meeting 
16 to 18 November
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