Battleangel

The U.S. government will indefinitely retain oversight of the main computers that control traffic on the Internet, ignoring calls by some countries to turn the function over to an international body, a senior official said Thursday.

The announcement marked a departure from previously stated U.S. policy.

Michael D. Gallagher, assistant secretary for communications and information at the Commerce Department, shied away from terming the declaration a reversal, calling it instead “the foundation of U.S. policy going forward.”

“The signals and words and intentions and policies need to be clear so all of us benefiting in the world from the Internet and in the U.S. economy can have confidence there will be continued stewardship,” Gallagher said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Though the computers themselves — 13 in all, known as “root” servers — are in private hands, they contain government-approved lists of the 260 or so Internet suffixes, such as “.com.”

In 1998, the Commerce Department selected a private organization with international board members, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, to decide what goes on those lists. Commerce kept veto power, but indicated it would let go once ICANN met a number of conditions.

Thursday’s declaration means Commerce would keep that control, regardless of whether and when those conditions are met.

Source: CNN

Is anyone surprised? Of course they never intended to relinquish control over the root DNS system. Even if it’s hardly a source of revenue it’s a basis for power and control. One that can be used for future influence. The US is as unlikely to give it up as they would be GPS or its worldwide network of military bases.

The United States Government intends to preserve the security and stability of the Internet’s Domain Name and Addressing System (DNS). Given the Internet’s importance to the world’s economy, it is essential that the underlying DNS of the Internet remain stable and secure. As such, the United States is committed to taking no action that would have the potential to adversely impact the effective and efficient operation of the DNS and will therefore maintain its historic role in authorizing changes or modifications to the authoritative root zone file.

See also Michael Froomkin’s, vocal critic if ICANN, take on the recent development. Fromkin of course being wary of any international control of the root server also thinks that ICANN needs the oversight of the DoC even though he notes that it goes against what the US has been telling its allies.

The unwillingness to relinquish control is in itself a bad sign. And the reasons for doing so are completely nonsensical. There is no way to justify this in real and tangible terms. There is but a renegade superpower not wanting to give up power for power’s sake.