A meeting sponsored by the
United Nations in Tunis this
week will seek to resolve a challenge to American authority over the
Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann).
The World
Summit on the Information Society will consider calls for an end to Icann's
unilateral control, and will suggest the alternative view that the internet
cannot adapt well to centralised or governmental control which could end up
fragmenting the network itself.
"There is going to be a nasty fight," said one international official
speaking to the Financial Times. "I don't see any room for agreement."
At last month's preparatory meeting in Geneva for the World Summit, the
European Union insisted on a
new "co-operation model" for the overseeing of internet addressing systems, and
called for a forum that would decide public policy.
The US defended its position saying that the proposed changes go against the
"historic role" that the US has played in controlling the top level of the
internet.
Meanwhile a journalist attending the summit was attacked near his hotel on
Friday. Christophe Boltanski, who writes for
Liberation, was
beaten, stabbed and robbed by four unidentified assailants near his hotel in the
Tunisian capital.
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