US Congress oils up, jumps over ropes into DNS wrestling match

The US Congress is trying to insert itself into the transition of the IANA contract from the Department of Commerce to domain-name overseer ICANN. In an amendment that will be put before a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee this week, the legislative branch of the US government will give itself 30 days to …

[Cubical Drone]

Theory verses reality

The upsides mentioned in this article are the theory, or more accurately the fantasy; the downsides are the reality.

[Dan Paul]

So?

Any country that already had control of the IANA contract would be doing the same things to prevent it from going elsewhere.

If you don't believe that you are completely deluded.

Personally I believe that ICANN will just screw it up if they get it as there will be far more opportunity for greed to interfere with it. Look at what they have done with TLD's.

The Internet has flourished during the time period we have had control over the contract. It isn't likely to change as long as we do.

Leave it where it is.

[Eddy Ito]

Thought so

“Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act of 2015”

I new it had to be some silly overly contrived backronym in there somewhere.

[kierenmccarthy]

Re: Thought so

Yeah, I purposefully left the long version out to save people from punching their screens.

[Eddy Ito]

Re: Thought so

jllik<Esc>:x<Ret>

[Captain DaFt]

Re: Thought so

“Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act of 2015”

DOTCOMA? Sounds prescient.

[Fazal Majid]

The current situation is bad, but entrenching ICANN's unaccountable mismanagement of IANA with a permanent contract would be even worse. It's a damning indictment of ICANN when the shambles that is the US Congress looks attractive in comparison.

[Tom 13]

It also requires that the relevant arm of the Department of Commerce, the NTIA, certify that the transfer meets the five criteria first laid out last year and, more importantly, that the NTIA certify that ICANN has approved and implemented all the bylaws changes that are contain in two upcoming reports from internet community working groups, before the transition occurs.

I thought everybody outside the US thought these bits were required for this to be successful. If so, you really need to keep your vile anti-Americanism in check. This administration has been everything except transparent, and the House's tool for slapping down the Executive branch when it gets out of line is the power of the purse. Which means that funding control is precisely what the House has to do to ensure those things happen. Furthermore, if ICANN had actually done all of those things, there House wouldn't be able to use them to cut funding for the bill.