By David Ray
Try to imagine life without the Internet. Over the last half century, the dramatic growth of the Internet has fundamentally changed the way humans shop, communicate, and entertain themselves. The Internet’s one billion users make nearly six billion searches a year. The growth of the Internet has been dramatic, with usage increasing 200 percent since 2000. According to the Department of Commerce (DoC), e-commerce now accounts for over fifty-six billion dollars in retail sales annually in the United States (U.S.) alone.
After providing a brief history of the Internet and a review of how the DNS operates, this paper examines a number of criticisms that have forced ICANN to confront the challenge of an increasingly hostile international community. This paper identifies several international alternatives to ICANN and evaluates their effectiveness. Ultimately this paper concludes management of the DNS by an international organization is unrealistic, inadvisable, or both. This reality necessitates a restructuring of ICANN to adequately address the international concerns surrounding the current framework.
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