|
US retains hold of the internet
 The US has won its fight to stay in charge of the internet, despite opposition from many nations. In an eleventh-hour agreement ahead of a UN internet summit in Tunis, Tunisia, negotiators agreed to leave the US in charge of the net's addressing system. Instead an international forum will be set up to discuss net issues, although it will not have any binding authority. The deal clears the way for the summit to focus on how poorer nations can benefit from the digital revolution. The Tunis deal leaves the day-to-day management of the net in the hands of the California-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), which answers to the US government. Icann will keep its current responsibilities for overseeing domain names and addressing systems, such as country domain suffixes, and managing how net browsers and e-mail programs direct traffic. The 170 nations taking part in the negotiations agreed on the creation of an Intergovernmental Forum to From the Beeb's 'Have Your Say': I would like to commend Nigeria for what seems to me a clear leadership in Internet usage in Africa. I am always getting friendly emails from Nigeria from people I don't know, but as I am not interested in getting rich quickly I don't normally reply. However I'm sure that they have transformed the financial circumstances of many other people so good luck to them.
Posted by: SwissTex 2005-11-16 |
|
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=135159 |