The Computer Science and Telecommunication Board has released a fairly Clueful report on the Domain Name System that manages the Internet.
Unfortunately the Bush Administration has, on the very day the report came out, moved to undercut its key recommendation.
Here's the key bit:
Before completing the transfer of its stewardship to ICANN (or any other organization), the Department of Commerce should seek ways to protect that organization from undue commercial or governmental pressures and to provide some form of oversight of performance.
The report, in other words, supports ICANN under the U.S. government because it sees this as keeping ICANN independent of government or commercial interests. Moving toward ICANN's independence is desireable, the report says, in order to minimize the perception that the U.S. government is controlling the Internet.
So far, so good.
So what is the Bush Administration up to? It's trying to control ICANN's right to create new general Top Level Domains, specifically .xxx. As Declan McCullagh reports:
Michael Gallagher, assistant secretary at the Commerce Department, has asked for a hold to be placed on the contract to run the new top-level domain until the .xxx suffix can receive further scrutiny. The domain was scheduled to receive final approval Tuesday.
"The Department of Commerce has received nearly 6,000 letters and e-mails from individuals expressing concern about the impact of pornography on families and children," Gallagher said in a letter that was made public on Monday.
See the contradiction? ICANN governance under U.S. places DNS issues away from government control. Then the U.S. government turns around and decides it can control DNS decisions, with an eye toward banning content!
You can't make this sort of stuff up. Either ICANN is independent of government control or it's not. If it's not, and the Commerce Department decision shows it's not, then it's subject to the whims of every government, and every commercial interest.
It's either-or, Mr. Gallagher. It's binary. It's one or the other.
Either you back off now or ICANN remains a political football, with no hope of your retrieving it.
Or, to give you a seasonal reference you might understand, FUMBLE!