The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number (ICANN), the
technical co-ordination body of the internet, has been criticised
by US lawmakers over the way new internet names are given out
according to a report by news agency Reuters.
ICANN, a private non-profit making organisation that was created
by the US Department of Commerce in 1998, has been told it needs to
be more open and impartial over the way it selects new internet
names. Ed Markey, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce
telecommunications subcommittee commented that, ‘To hear some
applicants tell it, events at the Vatican are shrouded in less
mystery than the process by which ICANN chooses TLD’s (Top Level
Domains).’
Members of a House of Representatives sub-committee expressed
their disappointment at ICANN’s decision last November to allow 7
new generic top level domain names (the suffix of an internet
address such as .com or .org).
Vincent Cerf, chairman of ICANN, told the committee that it only
approved a small number of the original 47 applicants for names to
ensure that the internet stays stable. The 7 new names that were
approved were .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .pro, .museum, and .name.
The names will double the number of generic top level domains
on-line.
When the new names were announced there were outcries from firms
that had paid a $50,000 application fee in the hope of controlling
one or more new domain names had their applications rejected.
Others complained that the $50,000 fee was prohibitively expensive.
Cerf commented that the steep application fees were to discourage
frivolous name applications and to fund ICANN.
Cerf was questioned by Rep. Billy Tauzin over why ICANN awarded
.biz to Washington based NeuStar Inc. when the domain name had
already been administered under an alternative system by Virginia
Beach based Atlantic Root Network Inc. Cerf commented that he had,
"a serious problem with the notion of alternative roots," saying
that assigning the same internet address to different users would
make the internet unworkable.
Rep. Fred Upton, the Michigan Republican chairing the
subcommittee, was also disappointed that ICANN had not approved
.xxx or .kids two seemingly intelligent names aimed to separate
underage internet surfers from pornographic content. The committee
panellists concluded that ICANN should keep to its original role,
as a technical standards body, rather than making
quasi-governmental decisions.
