On Tue, Jul 01, 2008 at 04:01:34AM -0000, Martin Hannigan wrote:
Doesn't ICANN already work like an international regulator?
No. They are more like the IETF than the ITU, but not quite the IETF. It's hard to describe. The origins are Berkman Center for Internet and Soceity at Harvard, and what is in existence today is a far cry from the original social desire of folks that are still there today who, based on my knowledge and perception, have been mostly disenfranchised.
But not quite a regulator.
They're sort of like Telcordia, formerly Bellcore, in my perception: they promulgate standards that everyone follows... because everyone needs some standards to follow. Clearly, they do not have the force of regulations, or we wouldn't have people operating root zones with things in them which aren't sanctioned by ICANN ('sanctioned'. Another one of those auto-antonymic words I love, like 'academic'... :-)[1]. Cheers, -- jra [1] Don't assume from that that I'm anti-expanded-root[2] [2] Please don't start this R-war on this list again. :-) -- Jay R. Ashworth Baylink jra@baylink.com Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates http://baylink.pitas.com '87 e24 St Petersburg FL USA http://photo.imageinc.us +1 727 647 1274 Those who cast the vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything. -- (Joseph Stalin)