The U.S. should give way to an independent global entity when it comes to assigning Internet addresses, according to a top European Union official. Vivian Reding, the EU's commissioner for information society and media, said Sunday that the current arrangement, in which the U.S. Commerce Department runs the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), was "not defendable."
"I believe that the U.S., so far, has done this in a reasonable manner," said Reding, of Luxembourg. "However, I also believe that the Clinton administration's decision to progressively privatize the Internet's domain name and addressing system is the right one. In the long run, it is not defendable that the government department of only one country has oversight of an Internet function which is used by hundreds of millions of people in countries all over the world."
ICANN, founded in 1998 and headquartered in Marina Del Rey, Calif., is responsible for a host of Internet-related management tasks and operates the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which allocates IP addresses globally, among other Internet protocol responsibilities.
The Commerce Department's current arrangement with ICANN is set to expire in September.
Reding, delivering her weekly address Sunday, said ICANN should be monitored by an independent legal authority, with a 12-nation group to oversee that new entity. It wasn't clear how she envisioned that group forming or under what authority. The commissioner did say she expected the current U.S. president to see things her way.
"I trust that President Obama will have the courage, the wisdom and the respect for the global nature of the Internet to pave the way in September for a new, more accountable, more transparent, more democratic and more multilateral form of Internet governance," Reding said.
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