The European Union insisted Friday that governments and the private sector must share the responsibility of overseeing the Internet, setting the stage for a showdown with the United States on the future of Internet governance.

A senior U.S. official reiterated Thursday that the country wants to remain the Internet's ultimate authority, rejecting calls in a United Nations meeting in Geneva for a U.N. body to take over.

EU spokesman Martin Selmayr said a new cooperation model was important "because the Internet is a global resource."

"The EU ... is very firm on this position," he added.

The Geneva talks were the last preparatory meeting before November's World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia.

A stalemate over who should serve as the principal traffic cops for Internet routing and addressing could derail the summit, which aims to ensure a fair sharing of the Internet for the benefit of the whole world.

At issue is who would have ultimate authority over the Internet's master directories, which tell Web browsers and e-mail programs how to direct traffic.

That role has historically gone to the United States, which created the Internet as a Pentagon project and funded much of its early development. The U.S. Commerce Department has delegated much of that responsibility to a U.S.-based private organization with international board members, but Commerce ultimately retains veto power.

Some countries have been frustrated that the United States and European countries that got on the Internet first gobbled up most of the available addresses required for computers to connect, leaving developing nations with a limited supply to share.

They also want greater assurance that as they come to rely on the Internet more for governmental and other services, their plans won't get derailed by some future U.S. policy.

Policy decisions could at a stroke make all Web sites ending in a specific suffix essentially unreachable. Other decisions could affect the availability of domain names in non-English characters or ones dedicated to special interests such as pornography.

Link

No.
We made it.
It's ours.
FOAD.

Make your own damn internet.

Those guys are stupid. The Internet is de-centralized. We can operate just fine without them.

That role has historically gone to the United States, which created the Internet as a Pentagon project and funded much of its early development. The U.S. Commerce Department has delegated much of that responsibility to a U.S.-based private organization with international board members, but Commerce ultimately retains veto power.

We built it, we own it, we control it.  Dont like it, build your own.

Quoted: Make your own damn internet.

Yeah, we could export Al Gore to assist them.

Some countries have been frustrated that the United States and European countries that got on the Internet first gobbled up most of the available addresses required for computers to connect, leaving developing nations with a limited supply to share.

Duuuurrrrr  

So those of us that use it the most got most of the IP addresses.  Color me suprised.  I guess in the globalization mindset the US should live with no more than one class A subnet, while Subsaharian Africa sits with millions of unused addresses becuase the don't own computers?

Quoted: That role has historically gone to the United States, which created the Internet as a Pentagon project and funded much of its early development. The U.S. Commerce Department has delegated much of that responsibility to a U.S.-based private organization with international board members, but Commerce ultimately retains veto power. We built it, we own it, we control it.  Dont like it, build your own.

I agree with you. Cause Al Gore made it!

But seriously, precedent dictates that we do the work and create success, and then turn it over to other countries to squander. Anyone remember a little ditch in Central America that we dug?

LMAO @ EU

Riiiight.

He who controls the DNS servers makes the rules.

Ha! Next thing you know someone will want to direct some Federal agency to create a task force that investigates websites that host adult pornography.

Quoted: Make your own damn internet.

It is not that hard actually.  The real question is, whould anybody use it?

Quoted: The U.S. Commerce Department has delegated much of that responsibility to a U.S.-based private organization with international board members, but Commerce ultimately retains veto power.

"Bush controls the Internet!"

I'm surprised Bill Clinton didn't give it to the Chinese. I'm sure Hillary would like to get back on the UN's "good"  side by offering it up one day.

"He who controls the internet, controls the universe!"

MEMO

To: the EU

From: US Citizen

Sit down and shut the fuck up!

CC:
Far east

Quoted: MEMO To: the EU From: US Citizen Sit down and shut the fuck up! CC: Far east

A stalemate over who should serve as the principal traffic cops for Internet routing and addressing could derail the summit, which aims to ensure a fair sharing of the Internet for the benefit of the whole world.

The good thing about media articles are you always get to see the LIE they are trying to perpetuate.