Update On The Domain Name Wars: Is ICANN Out Of Control?

What would you call a system of governance run by a cabal of unelected elites that pays lip service to the free market by leaving the means of production in private hands while arrogating to itself the power to banish anyone that disobeys its self-pronounced edicts? History calls it fascism. In cyberspace, we call it ICANN.

Masquerading as the humble administrator of "certain largely technical aspects of the Internet infrastructure," ICANN, or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is anything but. The bastard child of Al Gore's Internet policy initiatives and the late Jon Postel's de facto control of the root domain name servers, ICANN has already embarked on a journey whose intended destination is nothing short of the unified governance of cyberspace.

Root servers are the authoritative directories atop the distributed Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy that determine who really owns which domain, ultimately mapping these names into unique IP addresses around the world.

Control the root servers, and you control the creation of new top-level domains like .com and .org. Disappear from the DNS system, and for all practical purposes you disappear from the public Internet.

Purportedly established to privatize the DNS registry previously administered under monopoly contract by Network Solutions Inc., ICANN has metastasized into a policy-making body that is but one step from achieving independence, armed with a charter that allows it to extend its mandate wherever it chooses.

A case in point is ICANN's recent initiative to create a parallel judicial system, backed by its own police power of banishment, to deal with companies or individuals that register domain names in "bad faith." These fast-buck artists, or "cybersquatters," have become a chronic nuisance to corporate trademark holders, who often have to pay big bucks to regain coveted domain names. While the problem is real, and the proposed remedy sounds reasonable, the mediation system being put in place is but the first step toward the creation of a new and independent system of transnational common law from which there can be no appeal.

While I can't recall ever agreeing with Ralph Nader, he hit the nail right on the head with his pointed questions to ICANN chairwoman Esther Dyson, a.k.a. "Queen of the Information Age." Nader, with a chorus of others, has been frantically trying to find out exactly what the enumerated powers of this new public authority are, and to whom it is accountable. This is no small matter, given ICANN's attempt to achieve financial independence by levying a $1 per domain name tax, estimated to bring in upwards of $6 million a year.

Who's to say what ICANN may deem unacceptable at some future time, leading to banishment? For a quick update on the issues, see www.icannwatch.org, run by the Cyberspace Law Institute at Temple University.

History holds a fascinating example of a public authority run amok, chronicled in the Pulitzer prize winning biography of Robert Moses titled "The Power Broker." At the dawn of the automobile age, this builder of New York City's highway infrastructure developed the independent public authority into a virtual fourth branch of government, beyond the reach of voters, the mayor, the governor and even the president. Funded by the steady trickle of nickels and dimes collected at bridge and tunnel toll booths, multiplied by revenue bonds that capitalized on this cash flow, Moses ruled as a virtual czar over transportation policy for more than 40 years.

So what lies ahead? ICANN will probably be granted its tax revenue after agreeing to some nominal controls. But no matter how ICANN evolves, no matter who ends up directing it or its successor, the power to dictate the contents of the domain name root servers will eventually be abused. This is not a comment about the nature of the Internet but rather the nature of power.

The time will come, then, when a number of people large enough to form a self-sufficient community will be forced to strike out on their own, establishing a new set of Domain Name Servers overlaid on the very same Internet. There is no technical reason why this cannot be done, even today.

And like the Pilgrims, who set out in small boats to found Plymouth colony, the search for freedom will start again.

Bill Frezza is a general partner at Adams Capital Management. He can be reached at frezza@alum.mit.edu or www.acm.com.