Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Who Owns The Root?

In the Unix operating system, the Root user is the equivalent of god, with absolute power over every aspect of the system, including all other users.
 
There’s a somewhat similar concept in the Internet itself – there’s a bunch of servers – the root servers – that dictate Internet addresses, and how the numerical addresses are mapped to domain names such as www.google.com or www.bbc.co.uk.
 
Up until now, these servers have been very firmly under the control of the US government. Not surprisingly, since the Internet has its origins in a US military network project. Equally not surprisingly, now that the Internet is a global phenomenon, other governments have started voicing concerns about the degree of control that the US has over the Internet. Those voices have gradually been getting louder, until now it seems as though some sort of inter-goverment body is likely, according to this report in yesterday’s Guardian.
 
Personally, I would prefer to see the political governance of the Internet invested in some form of UN-related body. Naturally, some people see that as a very bad thing, but then, Mandy Rice-Davies Applies…

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2 responses to “Who Owns The Root?”

  1. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    Disclaimer: I’m American. Don’t hold that against me.That said, I was under the impression that IPv6 included provisions for distributing the governance of the root servers. I can’t recall a source, however, so I may be wrong.Secondly, do you still see there being a single entity that governs these root servers? I’d be concerned if it were really distributed that there was no single root node in a tree, or that naming conflicts could arise between branches of the tree. Having a single entity helps ensure that names are only registered once, for example.Third, are other country domains (.uk, .de, et cetera) under the purview of these root servers, or a different infrastructure?Anyway, my thoughts so far. At least this isn’t in the hands of a corporate entity.

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  2. Geoff Avatar
    Geoff

    Mike, I don’t know the details about IPv6, so I can’t comment as to whether governance can be distributed – but remember I’m talking about political governance, not the technical governance, or the service governance – which are different things. Actually, I’d be surprised if IPv6 specs even mention political governance – it the latter forms that it’s more likely to cover.Second, I agree that there should be a single root for the reasons that you mention – but again, I’m talking about political governance – that could be invested in a single governing body, whose members consituted representatives from multiple government. That sounds like the UN to me, or maybe ISO…The other country domains are indeed under the purview of the root servers, which are currently totally controlled by the US. That’s the issue.

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