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Archived Press Releases
U.S. Congress Considers Bill to Mandate Domain Creation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
11 July 2001
Washington, DC -- The Internet Society (ISOC) believes that the recent introduction of a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to create a new top level domain, ".kids," is a step in the wrong direction in the technical administration of the Internet.
The U.S. Department of Commerce was instrumental in the creation, three years ago, of a new corporation, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is charged with domain name system management, among other responsibilities. ICANN was created to provide a global system which will ultimately be able to take full responsibility for certain administrative duties that have historically been overseen by entities within the Department of Commerce. This is an important step forward in creating an international non-governmental structure to ensure that the Internet will grow and thrive.
The introduction of proposed legislation to require the creation of a new top level domain is a direct threat to the authority of ICANN and goes counter to the U.S. Government's previous strong support for ICANN's responsibilities in this area. Whether or not the creation of a new domain directed to children is useful and socially desirable, the proposal in Congress creates far more problems than the new domain might solve. Among other things, the attempt to compel ICANN to create a new domain invites retaliatory moves by other governments. Many governments already have indicated some discomfort with the level of U.S. governmental control of the root server containing the central roster of top level domains. In addition, political interference in the authority of ICANN serves only to encourage the creation of other structures, including alternate root systems, that will ultimately result in fragmentation of the Internet.
If the U.S. Congress finds that the merits of a new domain directed to children are sufficient to warrant some legislative action, creation of a domain such as ".kids.us" or ".kids.[state designation].us" would be far preferable.
ISOC strongly urges
the U.S. Congress to reject any attempts to micromanage
the domain name system. The developing procedures of ICANN to create new
top level domains are the best avenue for promoting the fuller development
of the Internet domain name system.
About ISOC:
The Internet Society
ISOC is a non-profit, non-governmental, open membership
organization whose worldwide individual and organization members make
up a veritable "who's who" of the Internet industry. It provides
leadership in technical and operational standards, policy issues, and
education. ISOC hosts two annual Internet conferences http://www.isoc.org/isoc/conferences/,
trains people from all over the world in networking technologies, conducts
workshops for educators, and publishes an award-winning magazine, OnTheInternet.
ISOC provides an international forum to address the most important economic, political, social, ethical and legal initiatives influencing the evolution of the Internet. This includes facilitating discussions on key policy decisions such as taxation, copyright protection, privacy and confidentiality, and initiatives towards self-governance of the Internet. ISOC created the Internet Societal Task Force as an on-going forum for discussion, debate, and development of position papers, white papers, and statements on Internet related societal issues.
ISOC is the organizational home of the International Engineering Task Force, the Internet Architecture Board, the Internet Engineering Steering Group, and the Internet Research Task Force - the standards setting and research arms of the Internet community. These organizations operate in an environment of bottom-up consensus building made possible through the participation of thousands of people from throughout the world.
Contact:
Lance Laack
Manager, Public Affairs and Communications
Internet Society
11150 Sunset Hills Road, Suite 100
Reston, VA 20190-5108 USA
Tel: +1 703 326 9880 Fax: +1 703 326 9881
Email: lance@isoc.org
