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Summit to focus on internet { December 5 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36852-2003Dec4.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36852-2003Dec4.html
U.N. Summit to Focus on Internet
Officials to Discuss Shifting of Control to International Body
By David McGuire
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, December 5, 2003; Page E05
Leaders from almost 200 countries will convene next week in Geneva to discuss whether an international body such as the United Nations should be in charge of running the Internet, which would be a dramatic departure from the current system, managed largely by U.S. interests.
The representatives, including the heads of state of France, Germany and more than 50 other countries, are expected to attend the World Summit on the Information Society, which also is to analyze the way that Web site and e-mail addresses are doled out, how online disputes are resolved and the thorny question of how to tax Internet-based transactions.
Many developing nations complain that the world's most visible Internet governance body -- the U.S.-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) -- does not adequately represent their interests and should be scrapped in favor of a group allied with the United Nations.
A nonprofit company based in Marina del Rey, Calif., ICANN oversees the Internet's addressing system under an agreement with the U.S. government. The U.S. private sector controls about 85 percent of the Internet's underlying infrastructure.
"Because this is taking place in a U.N. summit, the commercial sector is not yet fully aware of the implications this has for the Internet," said Marilyn S. Cade, director of Internet and e-commerce, law and government affairs at AT&T Corp.
Companies such as AT&T say the Internet has benefited from ICANN's ability to set policies and resolve disputes quickly with minimal government oversight, but some countries complain that the United States wields too much control over ICANN and that the body is unresponsive to their needs.
"That sentiment is very much out there . . . and although [ICANN] has evolved and has tried to bring in a lot of engagement from a lot of places, there have to be ways to open up the process even a little bit more," said Sarbuland Khan, head of the United Nations' Information and Communications Technology Task Force.
Khan said world governments, for instance, have no central authority to coordinate rules for Internet security and taxing online transactions.
He added that the United Nations is not trying to transfer ICANN's powers to its own International Telecommunications Union (ITU), as some countries have advocated, but he conceded that such recommendations would be on the table in Geneva.
ICANN Chairman Vinton G. Cerf said the group has been unfairly made the focal point of all criticism relating to Internet administration, even in areas where it was never intended to have a say.
"The bizarre argument that gets made: What ICANN does is Internet governance, and since ICANN doesn't deal with all those other issues, it's not doing its job and let's replace it with the ITU," Cerf said.
Cerf said that the United Nations could address Internet security and taxation, but should leave control over the Internet's addressing system to ICANN.
That is the point of view of the U.S. government, which will send representatives to the Geneva meeting.
"We believe that Internet governance should continue to be coordinated and led by the private sector, and we remain committed to working with ICANN to ensure that Internet governance remains balanced among all stakeholders," said Clyde Ensslin, a spokesman for the Commerce Department, which oversees ICANN.
Tom Galvin, director of government relations for U.S. Internet giant VeriSign Inc., said the meeting could help resolve lingering questions about how much power ICANN should have.
VeriSign administers the .com and .net Internet domains and is overseen by ICANN. The two organizations have clashed repeatedly since ICANN's launch in 1998.
Khan said the main purpose of the conference is to agree on a set of goals for promoting improved Internet governance and development. The ITU won't made its final policy decisions until the second half of the summit meeting, set to take place in Tunis, Tunisia, in 2005.
David McGuire is a reporter for washingtonpost.com
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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