Perhaps it's summertime blues, DNSSEC-fatigue, or simply recognition of fait accompli, but the comment period for NTIA's notice of intent to proceed with the final stages of Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) implementation in the authoritative root zone has passed with only a handful of comments submitted. (although there seems to be some fishing going on for support) Root server operator Autonomica, registry operators Nominet and Neustar, AT&T, as well as Paypal and Connotech were generally supportive of the action and congratulatory toward NTIA, VeriSign and ICANN. However, one commenter criticized that the "US government crypto culture tainted the detailed arrangements." Paypal offered its support, but with a caveat.   more »

It still isn't over.

At its public forum Thursday, the ICANN Board indicated its willingness to accept and act in accordance with the findings of an Independent Review Panel that ruled it had treated the .xxx top level domain application unfairly. In a presentation from its General Counsel, ICANN bowed to justice and issued two important declarations.   more »

At the Brussels meeting between ICANN's Board and its Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), a fascinating and important discussion took place over the right of ICANN to censor or restrict the kind of words that can be used as top level domain names. The issues being debated here have profound implications for global regulation of internet content.   more »

Everybody involved in Internet governance is in Brussels. It is one of the largest attendances at an ICANN meeting ever. Famous crypto expert Whit Diffie is here as a new ICANN employee and so is DNS developer Paul Mockapetris. Lawrence Lessig and Jon Zittrain are here for the Internet Society Board meeting. Paul Twomey, the former CEO, has come as "a civilian." The U.S. Commerce Department is out in force, including Larry Strickling. So is the European Commission.

Accountability is the theme here. It seems to have suddenly dawned on people that ICANN is a private corporation capable of taxing and regulating a critical part of the global internet's infrastructure -- and yet it has no members, no shareholders, no competition, and no real legal or regulatory oversight. And so a growing chorus of voices from very diverse sources is now raising questions about ICANN's accountability and making proposals about what to do about it. Asked to give one of the usually ceremonial opening speeches, Neelie Kroes, the European Commission Vice President pointedly asked, "Nowadays, how could any organisation with global responsibilities not be accountable to all of us?"   more »

Network World reports that "unprecedented levels of broadband adoption in the Asia-Pacific region" is depleting the free pool of IPv4 addresses faster than anticipated. It also states that "The acceleration of IPv4 address depletion is putting more pressure on network operators to migrate to IPv6, the long-anticipated upgrade to IPv4, the Internet's main communications protocol." Both statements are questionable.   more »