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US stands firm over Internet control

Declan McCullagh CNET News.com

Published: 11 Nov 2005 17:20 GMT

The UN's World Summit on the Information Society began with a high-minded purpose: to bridge the technological gap between richer and poorer nations. But now the WSIS event, which begins on 16 November in Tunisia, has transformed into a week-long debate about who should control key portions of the Internet.

Delegates from nations like Iran, China, and Cuba have been clear in what they want: less control by the US government. Instead, they've suggested creation of some sort of cyber-bureaucracy — perhaps under the UN International Telecommunication Union.

Those arguments have met with a cold shoulder in Washington. The Bush administration said in no uncertain terms in June that it intended to relinquish the US' unique influence over domain names and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that position. But that doesn't advocate relinquishing total control or creation of a UN bureaucracy.

Declan McCullagh, the chief political correspondent of ZDNet UK's sister site, CNET News, will be reporting direct from the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia beginning next week.

If the UN prevails in this international political spat, business groups worry that domain name fees would go up and regulations would increase. If no agreement is reached, there's always the possibility of a bifurcated Internet divided by geographical region.

CNET News.com recently spoke with Ambassador of Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs David Gross, who's leading the US delegation to Tunisia. Gross previously was a telecommunications lawyer and a lobbyist for AirTouch Communications (now part of Vodafone).

Q: What are the stakes at the WSIS summit?
A: The stakes are really very high. The focus of the summit originally — and we believe still — is on the use of technology to take advantage of the historic opportunity to better everyone around the world, economically, socially and politically. Those are very high stakes.

How much of the current opposition over this issue is a result of global tensions regarding the US as the world's lone superpower and involvement in Iraq?
This is an issue that I think should be and will be addressed on its merits. The Internet has been an extraordinary development in the history of the world. There are about a billion people connected to the Internet in a remarkably short period of time.

The system has worked extraordinarily well and arguably better than any other technology that's ever been rolled out. We seek to ensure that that continued advancement goes forward. I know by the way that the president just this afternoon (Thursday) is awarding the Medal of Freedom to a host of extraordinary Americans. Two of those Americans include Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, who are often referred to as the fathers of the Internet.

Does the US government have too much control of Internet governance?
If you look at it the way most people would, it's a very bottom-up approach. There are a lot of players — civil society and the private sector — that play an important role. Certainly, the US government...

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