10/05/2005 10:43:00 PM|||Joe|||This is ridiculous. Are they so unimaginative that the only way they can think to control root DNS is by taking control from the U.S.?

First of all, as far as I know, the U.S. does not control all 13 root nameservers. Some of them are controlled by private U.S. entities, and some of them (RIPE, WIDE) are not under U.S. control at all, as far as I know.

However, my understanding is that the U.N. basically wants control of ICANN. Or, perhaps, to take over ICANN's role.

ICANN has problems, of course. But any entity with its responsibilities will have problems. Note also that ICANN is apparently trying to cut off ties with the U.S. government and privatize.

What I wonder is why the U.N. doesn't just subvert ICANN. They can set up their own root nameservers and appeal to, say, the EU to only use the UN nameservers. It may be chaotic for a while, but in the end we may end up with de-centralized authority, which would probably be good.

I guess I'm saying that as uncomfortable as I may be about ICANN having the control it has, the idea of the U.N. managing this strikes me as more problematic. The fact that the internet is international does not necessarily mean that an international body should be responsible for assigning IP addresses and domain names.

I admit that I'm a little hazy on all this, so if anyone has more insight, I'm all ears.|||112861603598803759|||UN Taking Root DNS