Historic agreement puts ICANN firmly in control of Internet domain names

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 01 October 2009 05:50

IT Industry - Strategy

"When you combine this agreement with our Internationalised Domain Name (IDN) program it means that the internationalisation of the Internet is now well underway." (ICANN's IDN program will allow the use of non-Latin based language characters in the entire Internet domain name, which is expected to vastly increase the number of Internet users in global regions such as the Middle East and Asia.)

The announcement has been enthusiastically welcomed by a host of business and political leaders whose comments ICANN has posted on its web site.  Vint Cerf, the "father of the Internet" said: "The Affirmation of Commitments by ICANN and [the US Department of Commerce] fulfills a long-standing objective of the original formation of ICANN: to create an organisation that can serve the world's interest in a robust, reliable and interoperable Internet."

The Internet Society (ISOC) president and CEO, Lynn St Amour, said: "The Internet Society is particularly pleased that both parties emphasised ICANN's role as a steward of the public interest. The domain name system ICANN administers is intended to benefit Internet users around the world. We look forward to working with ICANN to ensure it can fulfil the commitments announced today."

St Amour said the announcement reflected many points made in ISOC's response in June to the request for public input to the NTIA's "Assessment of the Transition of the Technical Coordination and Management of the Internet's Domain Name and Addressing System." In that submission ISOC called for an end to the joint project agreement that had tied ICANN to the US Government since its inception in 1998.

Bill Graham, leader of strategic global engagement for ISOC, added: "With commitments like the ones announced today by ICANN and DOC, the hard work begins now. It is vital for ICANN to develop and implement detailed and balanced mechanisms to ensure openness and accountability. We believe ICANN and people involved in its processes now have the tools and incentives to make it an effective and trusted organisation."