Saturday, October 1, 2016

It's Done: The United States Has Transferred the Internet "Address Book" to a Global Organization

Oversight of the internet’s naming directory -- essentially the web’s address book --has been  transferred today from the U.S. government to an international nonprofit organization.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will take full control of the Domain Name System (DNS), which it has managed the everyday operations of for years while still technically reporting to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

I discussed what this means here:What the Transfer of Internet Management Away From the U.S. Means.

-RW

6 comments:

  1. The twelve root nameservers are run by University of Maryland, Verisign (a US corp) the US Army, US Defense information Systems Agency, NASA, USC, and poor little ICANN. I wouldn't worry about it:

    Verisign Distributed using anycast
    5/0 BIND
    B 192.228.79.201[note 3][11] 2001:500:84::b[12] (none),[8] AS4[13] ns1.isi.edu USC-ISI Marina Del Rey, California
    0/1 BIND
    C 192.33.4.12 2001:500:2::c AS2149[8][14] c.psi.net Cogent Communications Distributed using anycast
    8/0 BIND
    D 199.7.91.13[note 4][15] 2001:500:2d::d AS27[8][16] terp.umd.edu University of Maryland Distributed using anycast
    50/67 BIND
    E 192.203.230.10 2001:500:a8::e AS21556,[8][17] AS42[17] ns.nasa.gov NASA Ames Research Center Distributed using anycast
    13/58 BIND
    F 192.5.5.241 2001:500:2f::f AS3557,[8][18] AS1280, AS30132[18] ns.isc.org Internet Systems Consortium Distributed using anycast
    57/0 BIND 9[19]
    G[note 5] 192.112.36.4[note 6] N/A[note 7] AS5927[8][20] ns.nic.ddn.mil Defense Information Systems Agency Distributed using anycast
    6/0 BIND
    H 198.97.190.53[note 8][21] 2001:500:1::53[note 9][22] AS1508[22][note 10][23] aos.arl.army.mil U.S. Army Research Lab Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland & San Diego, California
    2/0 NSD
    I 192.36.148.17 2001:7fe::53 AS29216[8][24] nic.nordu.net Netnod Distributed using anycast
    41/0 BIND
    J 192.58.128.30[note 11] 2001:503:c27::2:30 AS26415,[8][25] AS36626, AS36628, AS36632[25] Verisign Distributed using anycast
    61/13 BIND
    K 193.0.14.129 2001:7fd::1 AS25152[8][26][27] RIPE NCC Distributed using anycast
    5/23 BIND, Knot DNS and NSD[28]
    L 199.7.83.42[note 12][29] 2001:500:9f::42[note 13][30] AS20144[8][31][32] ICANN Distributed using anycast
    157/0 Knot DNS and NSD[33]
    M 202.12.27.33 2001:dc3::35 AS7500[8][34][35] WIDE Project

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for this. I only wish I understood it.

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    2. sorry it is a list of the 12 root or master nameservers that everyone's computer connects to in the process of turning a name (economypolicyjournal.com) into an address that machine can use. the order is name (a letter like A B C ) IP address (123.123.123.123) mac address (l:n:n:n)AS number then the important part - who owns and runs the machine,
      the first is USC next is Cogent a US company, third is University of Maryland fouth is NASA etc. My point is as long as ICANN dosn't do anything they disapprove of they will probably follow its directions, but if ICANN does something affecting security or commerce adversely in the USA they simply won't.

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  2. The named addresses are just easy ways to connect without remembering numeric addresses. To avoid a long technical post there are several ways around any simple censoring ICANN may attempt via domain names. This would force ICANN to become even more severe to the point where it would it lose its relevancy and an unofficial Domain Name Server system would simply supplant it.


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  3. I don't quite understand how Obama can unilaterally do this. Is it within his legal right as President? Or is it one of those many things he does that he really cannot Constitutionally do but no one says anything?

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    Replies
    1. Is this an Obama issue? I know the department falls under the executive, but they take on a life of their own, which is part of the problem with these agencies. They kind of do their own thing without authorization from congress - except the blanket spending money they're given by it.

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