Fadi Chehade, President of ICANN corporation, came to Washington where today he will have a meeting with members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The majority of the members are Republicans, that are against the transition of DNS root zone from American government to institutions formed by the Internet community. This is why observers suggest that a few difficult and not so pleasant hours await ICANN President.
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) came forward with the initiative to transfer managing functions over the root zone to the Internet community about a year ago. However, Republican politicians referred to this proposition very negatively. According to them, if DNS root zone is not controlled by the US government, the Internet will be run by Russia, China and other «enemies of the democracy». Many bills have been introduced during this year to the US Congress that try to prevent the transition of managerial functions. Many of them demonstrate complete misunderstanding of the main principles of domain system functioning.
As a result the Senate approved an amendment that prevents the transition of control over the root zone from NTIA to the institutions of the Internet community until September 2015 when the current Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) contract expires. It is supposed that Republican lawmakers will my all means seek an extension of the contract at least till 2017. Their calculation is simple: in 2016 Democrat Obama will leave office and the new administration may not be as sympathetic to the issue of the transition.
During the meeting with the Congressmen Fadi Chehade will be joined by Larry Strickling, head of NTIA, and David Gross, a respectable lawyer formerly with the Department of State. Both of them are convinced supporters of the transition of control functions over DNS root zone to the Internet community.
