[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by Mike L

This story has got nothing to do with spying or censorship. They are simply saying that the US government will no longer have a formal relationship with ICANN, and so will not be involved with the assignment of domain names:

Are you sure about that? From the same article:

The practical consequences of the decision were harder to immediately discern, especially with the details of the transition not yet clear. Politically, the move could alleviate rising global concerns that the United States essentially controls the Web and takes advantage of its oversight position to help spy on the rest of the world.

I wouldn't presume to know the intricacies of domain name system root access, managing internet protocol numbers, how these might affect the variables of spying, commerce or fair treatment, or the ways in which ICANN might overreach (given any opportunities afforded by what it controls) beyond its stated purpose.

From Wiki:

In February 2007, ICANN began the steps to remove accreditation of one of their registrars, RegisterFly amid charges and lawsuits involving fraud, and criticism of ICANN's handling of the situation. ICANN has been the subject of criticism as a result of its handling of RegisterFly, and the harm caused to thousands of clients due to what has been called ICANN's "laissez faire attitude toward customer allegations of fraud. . . ."

On May 23, 2008, ICANN issued Enforcement Notices against 10 Accredited Registrars and announced this through a press release entitled: "Worst Spam Offenders" Notified by ICANN, Compliance system working to correct Whois and other issues. . . . The mention of the word spam in the title of the ICANN memo is somewhat misleading since ICANN does not address issues of spam or email abuse. Website content and usage are not within ICANN's mandate. However the KnujOn Report details how various registrars have not complied with their contractual obligations under the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). The main point of the KnujOn research was to demonstrate the relationships between compliance failure, illicit product traffic, and spam. The report demonstrated that out of 900 ICANN accredited Registrars fewer than 20 held 90% of the web domains advertised in spam. These same Registrars were also most frequently cited by KnujOn as failing to resolve complaints made through the Whois Data Problem Reporting System (WDPRS).

It looks to me as though ICANN is yet another privatized organization that manages an (internet, in this case) resource once controlled by the U.S. government, and that, following the usual pattern, privatization is leading to globalization. See neoliberalism as outlined by the Chicago School of economics.