US Commerce Department Retains ICANN Oversight

contents

business

The US Commerce Department in Washington promised Friday to take more of a hands-off approach to the Internet as it extended for three years its oversight of a California organization that handles network-address issues. Nowadays, the Internet root directory is run under government license by the nonprofit Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers. ICANN was created in 1998 to handle the Internet’s addressing issues, including the key directories that help Web browsers and e-mail programs find other computers on the Internet.

Under the new agreement, the Commerce Department will continue to provide expertise and advice on methods and administrative procedures to encourage greater transparency, accountability and openness. ICANN also is no longer required to provide a report to the Commerce Department every six months, but it will file an annual report addressed to the whole Internet community. The previous agreement contained about 25 specific organizational milestones ICANN had to achieve, but there are no such requirements in the new deal.

write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Networking News :: home page