> > > The US DoC operates, directly or indirectly, 6 of the 13 root servers, > > > including A. Whether it is "right" or not is irrelevant -- the DoC has > > > the power to do whatever it wants to the root. > > > > we REALLY need to rectify that situation. perhaps what we need are large > > numbers of alternate roots that DON'T try to define new TLDs but which > > exist solely to prevent the US government from exerting control... > > Let's not forget you wouldn't have an Internet without the US Govt. the way it happened, the US Gov't played a fundamental role. but something like the Internet would have happened anyway because all of the pieces were in place. without the US Government projects it might have taken longer for some technology to emerge as the leader. but there were other similar technologies being developed elsewhere. something like the Internet was bound to happen. > As much as everyone loves bashing the US Govt, I don't see anything the DoC > has done which wasn't in the interests of the Internet community. if they'd been acting in the Internet community's interests then NSI would have lost control of the root years ago. > I think we can all imagine how things would look if we handed the root > over to ISO, or the ITU, or the UN, or some other similarly "qualified" > international organization. It's not difficult to imagine a better result from say ITU than the current ICANN. And I don't say that out of admiration for ITU... I was supportive of the idea of ICANN, and I still support ICANN reform as the most likely way of solving the current set of problems - not that I see any sign of such reform happening. But ICANN has still been a huge disappointment, and at this point I think it will be very difficult for ICANN to gain the trust that it needs in order to work effectively. Of course part of the disappointment comes from ICANN's having to deal with the organizational structure that was forced on it. And that is are largely due to efforts and influence of the US Government. Such influence was hardly in the interest of Internet users. Keith