EU Wants Internet Internationalized After Seeing US Policy

May 16, 2009 | News Category: Gaming Law

0 Comments European Union leaders have been watching in amazement as they see some of the United States state governments try to impose the blockage of online casinos by blocking Internet domain names.

EU leaders are constantly frustrated by the disregard of the United States for the borderless aspect of the Internet. It is felt by many that the US has gone too far by applying measures that are protectionist in nature and simply ignore jurisdictional restrictions. As a result, the European Union called to remove the control of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) from the United States.

Currently, the ICANN is operating under the supervision of the Department of Commerce in the United States. The jurisdiction for the judicial review over ICANN lies with the California court system. ICANN assigns IP addresses and domain names, with the present contract ending on 30th September this year. The EU is hoping that when the contract expires, there will be some significant changes.

Viviane Reding, the EU Information Society Commissioner, in her video message which was posted on her EU Commission Website, has said that "In the long run, it is not defendable that the government department of only one country has oversight of an Internet function which is used by hundreds of millions of people in countries all over the world."

Reding also said that she wants a review to be done by an international tribunal, and that there needs to be increased accountability and also increased transparency when it comes to the actions of ICANN. She has also urged and encouraged Barack Obama to fully privatize ICANN, which would include establishing an international, independent judicial body which would be a "multilateral forum for governments to discuss general Internet governance policy and security issues."

The policies of the United States toward online gambling and many other areas of trade have been carried out somewhat arrogantly, with the result that there is much concern amongst other world leaders that perhaps the US should not have the sole control over ICANN, since the Internet should be without borders.

There are many who are concerned that ICANN has the potential to restrain or restrict trade by controlling who gets to operate the Top Level Domains and also controlling who has the ability to license domain names. This concern has been openly expressed by William Newton-Dunn, a member of the European Parliament.

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