14 DAY TRIAL // The Internet may seem like a pretty wild and open place with no one party having too much control over it. Still, there are many asking for even more freedom especially when it comes to the domain name allocation system currently run by ICANN. Though an independent organization, ICANN still has some ties with the US government, stronger than many other countries would like. A new agreement to come in effect next week is about to create a much looser relationship between the two bodies though it likely won't silence all criticism.
ICANN is a non-profit organization established a decade ago to handle domain name registration. Though created to move the responsibility away from the US government to an independent third party, the organization has maintained strong ties with the US officials leading some foreign countries and companies with interest in the field to mount stronger criticism of the relationship.
However, the current Joint Project Agreement (JPA) between the US and ICANN is about to expire next week and a new proposed JPA provides the organizations with more autonomy, shifting some of the authority to groups and organizations with interest in the industry and also other governments. The new agreement sets much looser terms and is just four pages long.
In it, a number of overseeing panels will monitor ICANN's activity and performance in four key areas, according to the Economist. The panels will be seated by representatives from several countries and the US will only retain a permanent seat in only one of them. However, the panels have no real authority over the organization and failing to meet their recommendations bares no penalties for ICANN.
The new agreement comes as ICANN is facing a rough time ahead as it plans to dramatically increase the number of domain name suffixes available for use beyond the 280 country code top level domains and 28 generic ones. Companies may even be able to create their own unique domain name suffix and there are also plans to allow for names written in other alphabets than the Latin one.