The contract is coming up on the internet.
Not MY contract. The US contract for control of the internet.
U.S. officials announced plans Friday to relinquish federal government control over the administration of the Internet, a move that pleased international critics but alarmed some business leaders and others who rely on the smooth functioning of the Web.
Pressure to let go of the final vestiges of U.S. authority over the system of Web addresses and domain names that organize the Internet has been building for more than a decade and was supercharged by the backlash last year to revelations about National Security Agency surveillance.
The change would end the long-running contract between the Commerce Department and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California-based nonprofit group. That contract is set to expire next year but could be extended if the transition plan is not complete.
The “transition plan” is about as complete as the Obamacare website was on November 1st, 2013. But that won’t likely stop the Executive Branch next year from tossing it to whomever says they’re ready to handle the process.
The Republicans and FOXNews have figured this out and are reporting it. The left are pooh-poohing them for doing so, citing the 1998 ICANN contract stating the 2015 cut-off.
However, what the left fails to notice about the 1998 contract is that ICANN was supposed to transition to a private body. But that is not what the Obama Administration has in mind. They are thinking something “public-private” like a UN-style body, where the public body gets the control and is paid for with private funds (aka: A Tax).
I don’t pay an internet tax now and I won’t pay one in the future. I love y’all, but I’ll go bye-bye before paying for the privilege.
If you like your internet, you won’t be able to keep it unless we get a Congress this Fall that is either willing to tell Obama “Oh hell naw!” or is afraid to tell Obama “Whatever you want dear.”
You know how to make that happen.
As a point of technology, US internet providers can make a totally new and different thing, just like the internet, but not technically the internet, to dodge those taxes. We may take a hit to international connectivity, but as long as we can get our technology providers (i.e. China, Japan) to go along, the US can beat this.
Back to the mud-huts of Usenet!
We are beginning to see the true purpose of the left. Turn back the clock. they will not be happy until every scrap of technology is unworkable.
ICANN only controls DNS top level names.
The various bad actors were already making their own top level DNS sevices and ignoring ICANN when they wanted to block people they didn’t like.
If ICANN is shut down by Obama, I expect folks like the EFF to start an independent top level DNS to combat censorship by assholes.
We don’t need to go back to USENET. If worse came to worse, a modern version of fidonet can be shoved into the same fibreoptics, and taxes in the US require congressional approval.
Attempts by third world dictators to regulate and tax will be ignored and brushed aside.
What are the real details? It looks like they’re just turning ICANN over to other countries.
I really believe that if somebody Out There tries to impose an “internet tax”, the People will bring the house down.