EU-US in spat over control of the Internet

E-Brief News reports that the European Union has backed the UN in its attempts to end US control of the Internet and bring it under international law. This follows concerns by countries like Iran that the Americans could pull the plug on them at any moment. AustralianIT reports that the EU – which had previously supported the US – did an about-face following concerns raised by developing countries. The US has clashed with the EU and much of the rest of the world over the future of the Internet. It currently manages the global information system through a partnership with California-based company ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). EU spokesperson David Hendon said while many EU nations were happy with the way the Internet was run, some countries ‘just cannot accept that the Americans have control of the Internet in their countries.’ The EU proposal would bring the Internet and ICANN under international law rather than US law. The EU says it is proposing a new ‘co-operative model’ to run the Internet and the way addresses – or domain names – are assigned that everyone could support. Full AustralianIT report

Earlier in the conference, a senior US official rejected calls for a UN body to take over control of the main computers that direct traffic on the Internet, reiterating US intentions to keep its historical role as the medium\'s principal overseer. ‘We will not agree to the UN taking over the management of the Internet,’ said Ambassador David Gross, the US co-ordinator for international communications and information policy at the State Department. ‘Some countries want that. We think that\'s unacceptable.’ The Washington Post reports that many countries, particularly developing ones, have become increasingly concerned about the US control, which stems from the country\'s role in creating the Internet as a Pentagon project and funding much of its early development. Some negotiators from other countries said there was a growing sense that a compromise had to be reached and that no single country ought to be the ultimate authority over such a vital part of the global economy. A stalemate over who should serve as the principal traffic cops for Internet routing and addressing could derail the summit, which aims to ensure a fair sharing of the Internet for the benefit of the whole world. Some countries have been frustrated that the US and European countries that got on the Internet first gobbled up most of the available addresses required for computers to connect, leaving developing nations with a limited supply to share. Full report in The Washington Post

Meanwhile, a report on the news4jax.com site says the stalemate over who should serve as the principal traffic cops for Internet routing and addressing could derail November\'s UN World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia. The Summit aims to ensure a fair sharing of the Internet for the benefit of the whole world. Some negotiators from other countries said there was a growing sense that a compromise had to be reached and that no single country ought to be the ultimate authority over such a vital part of the global economy. But Gross said that while progress was being made on a number of issues necessary for producing a finalised text for Tunis, the question of Internet governance remained contentious. Full news4jax report