ICANN Says US Gov't Should Let It Go Private, While US Wants More Control

by Mike Masnick
Techdirt
Mar. 29, 2011

We were just talking about how the US government -- despite existing concerns from pretty much the rest of the world that it already has too much control over ICANN -- wants more control over the organization that manages the basic structure of the internet. It appears that ICANN is looking to go in the other direction. ICANN boss Rod Beckstrom has sent a letter to the US government asking to be set free. In the letter, Beckstrom notes that the original plan had always been to privatize ICANN, and that was supposed to happen 11 years ago. Beckstrom points out that same thing we noted, which is that foreign governments are concerned about US control over the internet, and they're not going to look kindly on closer ties with the government. I have to admit that I'm intrigued what Beckstrom could do with an ICANN not under US government control. After all, he's literally written an entire book on the power of distributed systems over centralized ones. It would be great if he really worked to turn ICANN into a distributed system that couldn't be censored by any particular government agency.