Congress: We Keep Internet Control

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November 16, 2005 (3:58 PM EST)

By Gregg Keizer , TechWeb Technology News

Even though negotiations in Tunisia left the U.S. in charge of the Internet's naming system, Congress Wednesday passed a resolution that called for the United States to make plain its intention to permanently control the Internet's day-to-day operations.

Led by Reps. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), Rick Boucher (D-Va.), and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and first introduced in October, House Resolution 268 passed 423 to 0.

Late Tuesday, representatives from more than 100 counties came up with a compromise to the long-running feud between the U.S. and other nations, including China, Brazil, Iran, and those of the European Union, that would leave the U.S. in control of the Domain Name System (DNS), but would create a special forum to address concerns.

The forum, which is expected to meet for the first time in early 2006, would have no binding authority, U.S. officials have said, nor would it be allowed to interfere in DNS oversight.

That wasn't enough for the three Congressmen.

"This sounds like more of the same from heavy-handed U.N. bureaucrats," said Doolittle in a statement Wednesday. "Whether they call it a 'board' or a 'forum' it's clear that the ultimate goal of the U.N. is still to wrest control of the Internet."

"The United States invented the Internet and it has been our gift to the world, paid for by our taxpayers," Doolittle continued. "The U.N.'s desire to take that gift as a means of increasing its power must be stopped."

Resolution 268 demands that the U.S. "send clear signals to the marketplace that the current structure of oversight and management of the Internet's domain name and addressing service works" and that "the authoritative root zone server should remain physically located in the United States and the Secretary of Commerce should maintain oversight of ICANN."

While the U.S. government doesn't directly oversee the DNS, it has authorized a California-based non-profit called the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to manage the DNS. ICANN operates under a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Commerce Department.