Technically, we don't even need ICANN
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| Author | Content |
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| Skapare Mar 05, 2006 11:51 AM EDT |
Technically, we don't even need ICANN. We don't need the root servers they oversee. It's actually possible for an entirely different body to claim "governance" and succeed. That can happen because the internet protocols were not designed with any specific IP addresses for root servers. The root server addresses are just whatever the root server administrators have, and are typically installed into a DNS server as a "permanent" set of hint data. You can change the hint data in your own DNS server, and use an entirely different set of root servers, if you like. That kind of thing has already been tried in the past, and some of the hosters of alternate root servers are even still around. If you choose to use their root servers, you can get an entirely different set of top level domains. Some might have entirely different "owners" of the domains you are otherwise used to. Or you can just run your own root server and choose what top level domains you want to have. You can leave out ".org" if you want. Some people might well leave out ".xxx". And you can delegate ".com" to a different registry if you want to. ICANN is important only because there is concensus that they are. Those who run DNS servers can choose to make ICANN unimportant from their perspective. Ordinary internet users that don't run their own DNS server, and have no way to reasonably do so, could still use an alternate DNS server for their queries that might choose to ignore ICANN. So in the end, everyone really chooses. Most likely, things will stay as they are; ICANN will continue to "rule the roots". Purported desires of takeover by certain other governmental entities, such as the UN, could easily be thwarted by ICANN, or any other entity, creating all new root servers that operate as before, and the world can then choose when they want to go with. |
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