About 250 operators handle the registration for the Net's country-code top-level domain names, known as ccTLDs, which are the domain names assigned to countries and territories around the world. It's a diverse and independent group that has been loosely operating under guidelines developed by the late Jon Postel, who until his death in 1998 managed the Domain Name System under a contract with the US government.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which was tapped in 1998 by the US government to take over management of the DNS, has been attempting to reach agreements with the operators of the ccTLDs for several months--but with limited success.
On the surface, the resolution of this issue may have little immediate impact for Internet users and businesses. But bringing the ccTLDs under its wing would strengthen ICANN, which has struggled to gain legitimacy as it sets key policies that affect the Internet's underlying infrastructure. For ICANN, the agreements will further solidify its control over the DNS and ensure a steady source of revenue.
"I just think they want to get their grip on the whole Domain Name System," says Milton Mueller, an information studies professor at Syracuse University. "Now, some of the top- level domains out there really don't have any firm contractual relationship with ICANN. The whole system is not in place until they get sucked in."
