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US reduces its internet oversight
After lengthy delays and no small amount of political opposition, it's official: the US has given up a key aspect of internet oversight. As of October 1st, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (the outfit that manages the domain name system) is no longer under the watch of the US' National Telecommunications and Information Administration. ICANN is now a private, non-profit organization that will take its input from academics, companies, governments and the public. While the American government didn't really wield its influence, it no longer has that option.
US government cedes control of the internet in October
On October 1st, the US Government's National Telecommunications and Information Administration will hand over control of the internet's domain name system to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a "multi-stakeholder" nonprofit organization. While the change will be invisible to the billions of internet users out there, starting in October, the US government will no longer control what some call the internet's "phone book." The domain name system works by associating a web address or URL with a site's IP address, and it is crucial to the way the modern web works. Since 1998, the NTIA and ICANN have had a zero-cost contract in place that gives the US government the authority over the system, although the government's role was largely symbolic. Technically, the Obama administration has agreed not to renew the contract, which expires on September 30th. ICANN, a California-based group made up of representatives from tech giants, foreign governments and other "interested parties," actually began the process of finally taking over the reins when it detailed its transition plan last year. Again, regular users won't notice a difference in their internet come October, but the switch isn't without controversy. In the past, some have argued the US should maintain control in order to prevent foreign governments from censoring their citizens. More recently, however, the Obama administration and the tech community believe it is a necessary move to maintain international support for the internet and a decentralized governing body.
US government seizes domain names, claims to have a warrant
We're all for bashing botnets, but the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may have crossed a line -- in the midst of nabbing counterfeiters this weekend, the government organization seized the domains of a torrent meta-tracker and a trio of music sites. Today, the picture above is the only thing you'll see if you go to Torrent-Finder.com, RapGodFathers.com, Dajaz1.com or OnSmash.com, as the ICANN domain registration for the four are now in the ICE's possession, presumably on suspicion of piracy. If you ask the original domain owners however, they'll vehemently refute such allegations -- the torrent site reportedly didn't even distribute torrents themselves, merely cross-referenced other sites that do, and a RapGodFathers representative told TorrentFreak that it had complied with all DMCA takedown notifications. Apparently the websites and servers themselves are still intact, and it's only the URLs at stake, as two of the four websites are already up and running at domains ending in .info. We have to admit, this particular brand of domain squatting could be an intriguing business model. Expect "seized domains" to be tacked onto the laundry list of "Valuable Items You Too Can Buy at Government Auction!" any day now. [Thanks, Brian]
