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The US Department of Commerce and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers have signed a new agreement extending the Commerce Department's oversight of ICANN while loosening the apron strings tying them together. Most significantly, the agreement may lead to the Commerce Department's cutting ICANN free from oversight in 18 months.
Created in 1998, ICANN is responsible for oversight of the Internet's domain name systems and IP addresses. US oversight of the organization has become a topic of debate over the past couple of years, with calls for international control increasing. Some countries believe that the root server system should fall under control of the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union. Others, including many in the EU, feel that the system should be managed via some sort of public-private partnership.
