America wins battle for Internet

[theim]

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,16559,1643650,00.html

Internet battle ends in stalemate

· US fends off demands for shared control of medium
· EU falls strangely silent after leading reform calls

Kieren McCarthy in Tunis
Wednesday November 16, 2005
The Guardian


An expected fight over the governance of the internet looked to have been averted last night as a tentative deal was struck which would allow the US government to retain overall control of the medium for the foreseeable future.
As delegates arrived for today's opening of the UN-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in the Tunisian capital, bureaucrats who had been locked in three days of pre-summit meetings reckoned they had a compromise.

The US government will retain overall control of the technology which powers the internet - its domain name system, root servers and the oversight of the California-based, not-for-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) which looks after it all - for the foreseeable future.

An Internet Governance Forum will be created to discuss and decide upon the over-reaching issues of the internet, but, crucially, will not have any oversight powers. Governments have also agreed to work within existing organisations and infrastructures to gradually transform the way the internet is run.

It is a far cry from the inter-governmental oversight body that was proposed by the European Union in September. That proposal, which shocked the US as much as it pleased Brazil, China and Iran, pushed the previously unnoticed issue of internet governance on to the world stage and turned the topic into the main focus of the WSIS.

Just as surprising as the EU's proposal, however, has been its failure to push that model in Tunis this week. In fiery opening statements, China and the US laid down their same, strong positions, but when it came to the EU to speak, delegation head David Hendon said only that it had "looked carefully at all positions, including our own" and deferred to the chair of the committee over which direction the meeting would take.

Masood Khan from Pakistan wasted no time in telling delegates that the world was expecting a decision and he would no longer accept grandstanding. Stating that there would be no voting, only a process of consensus, Mr Khan told delegates to find common ground and produce a list of points where they agreed. When they failed to do so after several hours of discussion, he suspended the meeting.

With such a provocative approach, the hopes that a radical solution would emerge were shot down by a series of interventions from the US and Australia. Russian attempts to push the forum into the hands of the International Telecommunications Union were neatly sidestepped. By the end, what was left was an acceptance of the status quo with promises that they would be open to reform.

The finally wording remains to be decided but reform will have to take place in the governmental advisory committee of Icann, which plays only an advisory role.

Internet watchers were puzzled by the EU's backtracking. Recent speculation has centred on a letter from US national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to the EU in the run-up to the summit. Its contents have not been made public but Ms Rice is said to have urged the EU to reconsider its approach.

Mr Hendon confirmed the letter's existence but denied it had had any impact on the organisation's position.

A large number of leading IT companies, including Microsoft and Google, publicly stated their support for the existing model.

 

[waltky]

Looks more like the preverts won the porn battle, .xxx gettin' its own domain...

Sex domain .xxx given final approval by Icann
18 March 2011 - The .xxx will be a virtual red light district, and has generated years of debate

Internet overseer Icann has given final approval to the creation of an internet domain dedicated to pornography. The move to create a top level ".xxx" domain - similar to ".com" and ".org" - ends a 10-year battle over the virtual red-light district. Icann gave initial approval last year, but carried out further consultation checks over the application. It is now poised to sign an agreement with the ICM Registry, which is backing the domain, to make .xxx a reality. Supporters say the domain will make it easier to filter out inappropriate content.

But many pornographers worry that the move could ghettoise their content. Religious groups have argued that giving pornography sites their own domain legitimises the content. Icann, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, said in a draft paper ahead of approving the decision: "The Icann community has engaged in extensive debate as well, with this single issue generating higher volumes of community comment than nearly any other issue ever faced within Icann." The organisation oversees the internet's addressing system and demands that new top level domains, such as .biz, must be "sponsored" in that they must serve the needs of a defined community.

ICM said last year that it had more than 110,000 pre-reservations for .xxx domains. Initial approval for .xxx was given in 2005 but this was rescinded following protests from politically conservative groups. Icann also said it was worried that it would be asked to police content - a role it was not created for. In February 2010, a panel of US judges said Icann erred in denying the approval of the domain. Icann accepted that ruling and began a public consultation process on whether the domain should be approved.

BBC News - Sex domain .xxx given final approval by Icann

 

[waltky]

Granny says kids shouldn't be lookin' at pics of naked adults onna web...

Will a .XXX Domain Protect Kids?
March 23, 2011 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers approved .xxx as a top-level domain on Friday, clearing the way for it to join the likes of .com, .org and .gov in a move one that one company claims will help clean up the Web.

The top-level domain, which will be reserved for adult websites, comes after years of lobbying and bureaucracy. ICM Registry, the company that proposed the domain and has poured millions into getting it approved, will sell the .xxx addresses for about $60 a year, and it claims to have already accepted pre-reservations for more than 300,000 domain names. ICM has been lobbying for the .xxx domain since 2004, arguing that a special domain for porn sites would make it easier to keep children away from adult content.

“No one can ‘inadvertently’ surf to a .xxx adult site that may have an innocuous name to the left of the dot, as is very much the case in .com and other [top-level domains],” ICM CEO Stuart Lawley said. In addition, .xxx domains will carry a common labeling system to better enable web filtering, and the company has also promised that $10 from every domain purchase will go to a child-protection nonprofit.

Though it’s certainly true that a dedicated top-level domain will prevent people from accidentally surfing to adult sites with innocuous-looking web addresses, it’s not as if the old .com sites are suddenly going to disappear. While the domain has been repeatedly described as a “red light district” for the Internet, ICM itself acknowledges that existing porn sites are not being forced to move to this domain.

So unless the adult industry’s worst fears are realized and existing .com porn sites are forced to switch over to a .xxx domain, the new system would not make it any easier for parents to keep their kids away from adult content already on the Web. Indeed, adult industry groups have questioned ICM’s suggestion that the .xxx domain is needed to protect children from pornography.

MORE