US DoC Renews ICANN Contract

Ahead of the September 30 expiration of the current memorandum of understanding, the United States Dept. of Commerce yesterday announced it has renewed ICANN‘s role in administering the domain name system. According to an ICANN press release and this BBC news report, the new contract is for five years, extending ICANN’s authority to 2011, but is also subject to annual renewal. (I haven’t looked at the contract itself.) As the BBC story points out, this is somewhat disappointing for those favouring a more independent or international authority over domain name administration or, at least, a more transparent or accountable operation by ICANN particularly after the Tunis Agenda of late last year. The ICANN controversy is well explained in one of Michael Geist’s Law Bytes columns from earlier this year, as well as in this CBC indepth article reviewing the Tunis Agenda agreed upon at the World Summit on the Information Society from last November.