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RE: Reexamining premises (was Re: UN plans to take over our job!)

2005-10-03 08:32:39

Behalf Of John C Klensin

Ultimately someone has to operate the keyboard that puts 
lines/ records into what ultimately becomes the root zone 
file.  And someone has to supervise that person/ entity.

This has to happen. But ultimately backbone carriers have to decide to
route IP packets in certain directions.

The 'root' is a consenusal construct.

Now, for better or worse, that evaluation process, 
particularly for ccTLDs, has been the source of an immense 
amount of controversy.  Those who get most excited about the 
status quo don't acknowledge that ICANN is a legitimate, 
international, multi-stakeholder, private-sector organization 
but, instead,
refer to it simply as "the US Government Contractor".   They
point out that the US Government has asserted responsibility 
for, and control of, the root zone and that it clearly has 
the ability to overrule ICANN in determinations about root 
zone entries.  

This is certainly true in theory. In practice any attempt to do this
would lead to the root being fractured. It would lead to a monumental
diplomatic incident.





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