After some internal discussion, there is a chance of renewing or not the agreement between the US Department of Commerce and the Internet destination management entity, ICANN, both bodies sign a new cooperation agreement.
The renewal of the agreement means that over the next five years, the entity responsible for the management of domains and technical specifications for the Internet will count on the cooperation of the American government in this activity, contrary to what is advocated by several countries and international entities.
According to news reported by the BBC, the new agreement lasts for five years, with annual renewals and is surprising because its signature was preceded by a public consultation and several meetings of experts who analyzed the results of the consultation and debated arguments.
The aim of the initiative was to understand whether it was in the interest of the United States to continue to bear the burden of this management partnership, the displeasure of the European Commission, the United Nations and several countries that marked their position at the last World Summit on the Information Society.
The news that reported the meetings showed some openness on the part of the Bush Administration to abdicate this controversial position, now that the agreement between the parties was about to expire.
However, even before that time (September) the renovation took place, even with the results of the public consultation indicating the growing displeasure with the partnership.
Under the terms of the new agreement, the Department of Commerce will have responsibilities for the management of the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), which is responsible for registering IP addresses, or managing generic and higher country domains. These powers were already the responsibility of the Department of Commerce since the signing of the previous agreement in the late 1990s.
In view of this latest development, it is not difficult to predict that the topic will return to the center of the controversy in the forum on Internet governance sponsored by the United Nations next October in Greece.
However, the international press reports that the discussion regarding the reformulation of the ICANN management model is not closed.
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