Re: [ga] DNS Root-Level Pollution

[Karl Auerbach <karl@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

David Scott wrote:

> If ICANN's structure where to completely fail, I mean 100% failure, what 
> is the real impact.
Here's what I wrote about this a few years back:

http://www.cavebear.com/cbblog-archives/000233.html

What would happen were ICANN to vanish in a poof of money-colored smoke?

There would be an immediate and immense wailing from trademark law firms 
as the partners rend their expensive suits.  And the large registries, 
particularly Verisign, would weep at the loss of the a plaint regulatory 
agency that has gifted them magnificently and munificently over the years.
But from the point of view of internet users things would pretty much 
remain the same.
ICANN is deeply and heavily engaged in the regulation of business 
practices.  The anti-trust questions of that role have never been 
squarely faced.  But nevertheless, ICANN regulates the domain name 
marketplace.
That marketplace would not stop if the regulatory hand of ICANN were lifted.

From the point of view of packets moving across the internet, ICANN is 
almost vanishingly absent from the actual operational aspects.  The root 
server operators have no relationship with ICANN except the L root, 
which ICANN operates via its IANA role, and the F root which has a 
contract best described as a mutual-hands-off-but-recognize-me pact. 
The IP address system of the RIRs operates with very little interaction 
with ICANN.  IANA's number role has little day-to-day operational 
impact.  And the exact nature of the ICANN-IANA relationship and its 
linkage to the IETF and other I-things is not one of clarity.
(I am of the strong belief that the entire operation of DNS does not 
require the kind of imposed consistency that ICANN claims is necessary. 
  In other words, I think many of the problems that ICANN seems unable 
to resolve - such as new TLDs - would be better solved in the absence of 
any ICANN-like regulatory body.  But that's a discussion for another day.)
                --karl--