The National Telecommunications and Information Administration published a notice of inquiry in the Federal Register this morning, seeking public comment on policy issues the government should consider as the Sept. 30, 2009, expiration date of the Joint Project Agreement between the government and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers approaches.
In theory, the expiration of the JPA would signal complete relinquishment of federal government control over the domain name management duties handled by ICANN.
ICANN's relationship with the federal government is spelled out in the 2006 Joint Project Agreement and the 1998 Memorandum of Understanding Between the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. These documents spell out several lofty goals for ICANN to accomplish: long-term stability, competition for domain registration services, bottom-up policymaking, and representation of all stakeholders. If the government is convinced that ICANN has accomplished these goals, then (the story goes) it will declare the government-to-private-sector transition complete and hand over total responsibility for domain name management duties to ICANN.
This is really the wrong time for ICANN to be getting the keys to the car. ICANN has picked a nasty fight with trademark owners, an influential lobby, over plans to roll out new generic top-level domains. ICANN was singled out as a cause for concern in the Rockefeller/Snowe cybersecurity bill (S. 778) regarding domain name security issues. And the Obama administration is barely four months old, too young to make such a momentous decision. Add to this the constant online heckling that -- rightly or wrongly -- seems to follow ICANN around. It's easy to see the MOU/JPA continued for a few more years.
Take your best shot and send it to DNSTransition@ntia.doc.gov. Comments are due June 9.
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