BBC NEWS | Technology | Whose net is it anyway?

Whose net is it anyway?
Is it time to take control over the net away from the US government, asks technology analyst Bill Thompson?

When it comes to politics and policy making, those of us who take an interest in the way the internet is governed are usually treated with mild disdain by our activist friends.

Somehow the details of IP (internet protocol) address allocation, domain name resolution and the creation of new top-level domains (TLDs) by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) fail to ignite the passions of even the most committed policy wonk.

Few people, for example, could tell you any of the tortuous history of the .xxx domain, which is intended for adult-only content, primarily pornography.

Originally proposed in 2000 and initially rejected, the board of Icann was about to give the final go-ahead to this new home for the world's pornographers when the US government said it was unhappy with the proposal.

Because of this approval has been put on hold for a month and may now not happen, despite the fact that there have been years of discussion and consultation and millions of dollars have been spent by those who want to run the registry which will provide .xxx websites.

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