ICANN's leaving the nest, so when will it grow up?

ICANN is 17 years old. It's about to be given the keys to its dad's car. And we are all going to have to take a ride with it every day. On June 30, 2016, ICANN, which oversees the global domain name service (DNS), will take over the IANA contract on a semi-permanent basis from the US government. The IANA contract means very …

[Yes Me]

Hmm. Can we detect some personal skin in the game in this article? And the game is not over yet on ICANN's accountability post-transition, and the transition is still a year away. In fact, the game is *far* from over. The ball is in the ICG's court.

https://www.ianacg.org/

Also, I don't think ICANN is behaving like a teenager. I think it's behaving like a greedy child, and it listens far too much to even more greedy corporate adults.

[Anonymous Coward]

"...the game is not over yet on ICANN's accountability post-transition..."

Not over? Didn't you get the memo?

It'll be a California based "NGO" controlled by the US Government by means of California "law" and US federal "law" including "secret" "courts" and "secret" letters and suchlike.

[Yes Me]

NGO

AC#1, you said 'It'll be a California based "NGO" controlled by the US Government by means of California "law" and US federal "law" including "secret" "courts" and "secret" letters and suchlike.'

If you actually read the names community proposal, it would be a California Public Benefit Corporation controlled by ICANN itself, after the end of ICANN's government contract. But this proposal isn't agreed by any means yet. As for the FISA court and National Security Letters, yep, they're kind of hard to get away from, although since IANA publishes contact data for all registrations, I don't quite know what would be subject to a FISA warrant or an NSL.

In case you wonder, I greatly dislike the fact that IANA lives under US jurisdiction, but that's life.

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't there an accepted term for this kind of Quasi-Autonomous "NGO"?

[VinceH]

"The fact you have probably never heard of them."

That seems a very odd - and quite patronising - thing to say in an article on a site like this.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have no idea if I'm typical of El Reg users, but I used to breeze right passed articles on this subject. Wasn't even vaguely interested, ooh! Look at the new version of VMWare or Xeon. Hmmm... actually lets go look at VMWare 6!

People stuff flies right on by, although I'm sure you've noticed my decidedly paranoid outlook on people. Come to think of it, ICAAN fits right in.

[Martin O]

Nii Quaynor, the MIA Point Man for ICANN

FYI....Nii Quaynor, the MIA Point Man for ICANN in Africa awarded by ICANN http://domainingafrica.com/nii-quaynor-the-point-man-for-icann-in-africa-awarded-by-icann/

[Arthur Dent]

Re: Nii Quaynor, the MIA Point Man for ICANN

If ICANN is going to carry on in the style that it has ioerated in the past he rest of the world is going to het thoroughly fed up (actually, a lot of people already are fed up with ICANNs arrogance, greed , and stupidity). Maybe there'll be a revolution - it's close to where the world-wide networking community will cease to accept that this outfit can be permitted to continue to control things with no regard to any non-ICANN interests or indeed to anything other than its ability always to have its own way.

[Richard Gadsden]

Why does this remind me so much of FIFA or the IOC?

And could ICANN be operated better if it was an NGO of the UN (like UNESCO or the ITT?) At least then it could be independent of the US Government.