ICANN prez welcomes new era of internet

Paul Twomey discusses ground-breaking VeriSign deal

By Kieren McCarthy • Get more from this author

Posted in Financial News, 26th October 2005 13:28 GMT

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Asked whether he supports the US government's status-quo model or the EU's expanded model, he is diplomatic. "ICANN has to get along with all governments. We understand what the Europeans are saying about one governent, and we understand what the US government is trying to say. But our focus is on completion of the MoU and continuing to internationalise ICANN itself."

The MoU is the memorandum of understanding between ICANN and the US government, due to expire next year, and which was supposed to move ICANN to a position of autonomy, although recent pronouncements from the US governments have put that assumption under risk.

Twomey refused to be drawn on whether ICANN saw the end of the MoU as its birth as an autonomous body. "It is too early to come to specifics. Completion is what is important will have those discussions next year."

And so it's still all to play for. ICANN is much stronger after the VeriSign deal, but whether it's strong enough to protect itself against the world's governments is quite another matter.

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