Another Step toward ICANN Independence: US Government Supports .com Agreement

Today, the United States Department of Commerce took another concrete step toward making ICANN fully independent as the technical manager of the Internet.

Washington – Today the United States Department of Commerce announced its support for the .com domain name registry agreement between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and VeriSign Inc. The new agreement ends a lawsuit between the two companies and enables VeriSign to operate the .com domain through 2012. In response to the news, Association for Competitive Technology president Jonathan Zuck made the following statement:

“Today, the United States Department of Commerce took another concrete step toward making ICANN fully independent as the technical manager of the Internet. Following an agreement to move ICANN toward independence in three years, the Department of Commerce confirmed ICANN’s decision-making power by supporting the .com management agreement between ICANN and Verisign. This is an important step toward dispelling concerns about American oversight over the internet.”

“The perception that America controls the Internet has given ammunition to those demanding that the United Nations usurp control of ICANN. As ICANN transitions to full independence from the United States government, those governments who simply want to stifle free speech and target dissidents will not be able to hide their real intentions any longer. While they talk about a role in “internet governance”, what they really want is internet control: control of how and whether one gets access; control of content and control over the internet’s infrastructure.”

ACT will be continuing its analysis of this agreement on the ACT blog www.theactblog.org . To schedule an interview with Jonathan Zuck, please contact Mark Blafkin at +1 (202) 740-7483.

The Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) is an international education and advocacy group for the technology industry. Focusing on the interests of small and mid-size entrepreneurial technology companies, ACT advocates for a “Healthy Tech Environment” that promotes innovation, competition and investment. ACT has been active on issues such as intellectual property, international trade, e-commerce, privacy, internet policy and antitrust. ACT represents more than 3000 software developers, systems integrators, IT consulting and training firms, and e-businesses from around the world.

###