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Will the U.N. run the Internet?

Declan McCullagh‘s weekly CNET column deals with the international brouhaha brewing over whether the United Nations will take control of the heart of the Internet.

U.N. bureaucrats and telecommunications ministers from many less-developed nations claim the U.S. government has undue influence over how things run online. Now they want to be the ones in charge.

While the formal proposal from a U.N. working group will be released July 18, it’s already clear what it will contain. A preliminary summary of governmental views claims there’s a “convergence of views” supporting a new organization to oversee crucial Internet functions, most likely under the aegis of the United Nations or the International Telecommunications Union.

At issue is who decides key questions like adding new top-level domains, assigning chunks of numeric Internet addresses, and operating the root servers that keep the Net humming. Other suggested responsibilities for this new organization include Internet surveillance, “consumer protection,” and perhaps even the power to tax domain names to pay for “universal access.”

Link.

Other unmissable items on Declan’s politech list this week:

Politicians ponder whether cell phones will be used on planes
Feds push for wiretapping cell phones aloft: CALEA takes flight!
Patriot Act about to be made permanent — expiration date deleted.

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