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Breaking: Judge rules ICANN handover will happen!

Kevin Murphy, September 30, 2016, 22:01:58 (UTC), Domain Policy

We Win! The IANA transition is set to go ahead after a Texas judge ruled in favor of the US Federal government tonight.
Here’s the judge’s decision (pdf)
Larry Strickling, assistant secretary at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, released the following brief statement early October 1:

The federal court in Galveston, Texas denied the plaintiffs’ application for declaratory and injunctive relief. As of October 1, 2016, the IANA functions contract has expired.

The US had been sued at the eleventh hour by four state attorneys general, who claimed that allowing ICANN to go independent would, among other things, put free speech at risk.
The judge evidently disagreed, though his full decision has not yet been made available.
ICANN chair Steve Crocker released this statement:

This transition was envisioned 18 years ago, yet it was the tireless work of the global Internet community, which drafted the final proposal, that made this a reality. This community validated the multistakeholder model of Internet governance. It has shown that a governance model defined by the inclusion of all voices, including business, academics, technical experts, civil society, governments and many others is the best way to assure that the Internet of tomorrow remains as free, open and accessible as the Internet of today.

Akram Atallah, president of ICANN’s Global Domains Division, tweeted this:


The transition, in broad terms, means the US no longer holds a special role in managing the DNS root.
Now, instead of having to rely on vague threats from the NTIA to keep ICANN in line, the global internet community will get new powers to challenge ICANN decisions.


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Comments (9)

  1. Thomas Rickert says:

    It is just great to see that lies did not work. I am still amazed to see how hard some have tried to misrepresent what the community has done and what effects the transition would have.
    Glad to see they did not make it!
    Congratulations to all those who have been working tirelessly to make this happen.

    • JZ says:

      so you can say without doubt that this does not put free speech online in any kind of jeopardy whatsoever?

        • JZ says:

          then why the threat that if other countries weren’t included they would create some kind of “alternative”? it clearly indicates that there are changes they want to make and aren’t happy with the way its being managed.

          • Reg says:

            They may well be unhappy, but they are involved. And, as long as the Transition goes through, the system can be trusted (by governments). If the Transition was blocked, it would prove that the US (and by presumptive extension, ICANN) is untrustworthy. Each country still has the ability to do as it pleases within its own borders. As Akram said, the sun will still rise tomorrow.

  2. Nigel Roberts says:

    It’s an internet that’s full of love for ICANN this evening!!

  3. Theresa Seals says:

    This is not reversible. Hope you’re proud of yourselves – you are officially “useful idiots” for the globalist cabal. I wonder if you’ll be honest with your grandchildren when the effects are truly revealed.

    • Domenclature says:

      ICANN may no longer be oversighted by NTIA, but it is STILL a California corporation, completely within that state’s jurisdiction, therefore, still under US oversight.
      And, any attempt to move offshore, will actually begin the panic anticipated this time.

  4. Domenclature says:

    ICANN has just maneuvered into a mere California corporation, and one with an expired contract.
    The US role as the inventor, funder, owner, and guardian of the internet is unaffected by this.
    As a matter of fact, the American public, and indeed most authority outside the agency, NTIA, and/or department of commerce, who gave ICANN the contract to man IANA functions, are befuddled by what’s happening here; they don’t even understand why anybody would interpret this expiration other than ICANN reducing itself to a mere California corporation, that can never leave California, how much less giving the internet to anybody.
    I suspect that when Congress gets to it, they will formally take the IANA functions and bestow it to a department for full administration.
    Can you show me any public-private partnership anywhere in the world, where the private executives don’t aspire, or conspire, to take the whole dawn cow?

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