| ICANN Never Will: Internet Engineers Arise! |
by Malcolm Dean
DesktopLinux.com contributing editor Malcolm Dean reports on ICANN's extension of their joint 'Memo of Understanding' with the United States Department of Commerce through September 2003. Dean renews a call for reform to a system that has been largely blighted by reported corruption and self-serving policies . . .
ICANN Never Will: Internet Engineers Arise!
by Malcolm Dean
ICANN's incompetent and corrupt reign has been extended for another year. Sneaking under the radar in a release dated last Friday, the U.S. Dept. of Commerce expressed disappointment in the Infofascist organization's performance and lacklustre reform efforts. But the real mission of ICANN remains. ICANN continues its mission of turning the Internet's Domain Name System into a cash cow for a secretive set of monopolists and bureaucrats.
Amendment 5 of ICANN's Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) says:
"...the U.S. Government will effect such privatization by entering into agreement with and seeking international support for a not-for-profit corporation formed by private sector Internet stakeholders to administer DNS policy." In other words, end users not part of a private sector enterprise are not 'stakeholders' in the Internet.
By simply agreeing that the U.S. Government has the right to create a phoney and unnecessary monopoly on behalf of select businesses and foreign bureaucrats worldwide, a cultural and economic fiat of immense proportions has been unleashed against the Internet. The alleged and unproven benefits of privatizing such a fundamental public resource are clearly not in the cards.
What is in the cards for you and me is more corruption, insider deals, and scams.
The Internet is undoubtedly one of the Seven Wonders of the modern age. But where do its benefits begin to fail? Precisely where the Internet's engineers put their tools down and abandoned the field to bureaucrats.
In the beginning, Internet names and numbers were managed in a collegial fashion. The Internet was free of anyone who interpreted IP as Intellectual Property. Where the engineering ended, the lawyers and bureaucrats now gather in huge, well-funded numbers, 'managing' and manipulating the Internet to their own best interests. All in an entirely invented system.
Is the Domain Name System the result of natural law? Does it have some kind of Providential origin which requires not one, but three expensive priesthoods (IP lawyers, registrars, bureaucrats)? Is the IP address system reaching a point of failure?
None of the above. As the world of 64-bit desktop computing finally gets underway, as pervasive computing, grid computing, and nanocomputing become commonplace, it is time for Internet Engineers to take responsibility for the steaming mess they left behind. It is time to invent innovative, self-healing, self-managing Internet nodes which minimize the possibility for corruption and monopolistic gain.
Internet Engineers, arise! It is time to take back the Internet.
Copyright © 2002 by Malcolm Dean. Reproduced by DesktopLinux.com with permission.
About the author: Contributing Editor Malcolm Dean is a writer and IT strategist based in Los Angeles.
Talk back! Do you have comments or questions about this story? talkback here
Please note: The opinions expressed in this essay are those of the writer, not of the management or staff of DesktopLinux.com.
(Click here for further information)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
