Some "governments are happy to sell control to all or part of their ccTLDs to the highest bidder. Montenegro and the Pacific Island of Tuvalu, for instance, have allowed their ccTLDs to be used by websites with no connection to the country, and they fetch high prices for their respective .me and .tv ccTLDs. Laos markets its .la suffix to some Los Angeles-based businesses." (source WSJ infra)
Countries Scramble for Internet Sovereignty as ICANN Shifts - Digits - WSJ: June 27, 2014 "... the issue is one of national sovereignty extending into the virtual realm. Representatives from Germany and other countries at [ICANN 50]... said countries must continue to have “Internet sovereignty” over their ccTLDs... but the question of ccTLD “sovereignty” is complicated. There are no international laws or treaties governing use of ccTLDs and some governments choose not to assert sovereignty over a suffix related to their name...“We should respect every country’s Internet sovereignty,” said China’s Minister of Cyberspace Affairs Lu Wei... Germany’s Mr. Dauke said that governments should also possibly be given a special role in the oversight of non-country-specific generic top level domains, or gTLDs... ICANN is currently overseeing a massive expansion in the number of of gTLDs from a small list including .com, .net, to more than 1,000 including .london and .berlin."
Of course, Fadi Chehade, President/CEO of ICANN has been his own worst enemy when it comes to the IANA transition--
Gordon Crovitz: Au Revoir to the Open Internet - WSJ: "Fadi Chehade, president of ICANN, added to the worry. He assured lawmakers that U.S. law would continue to apply to ICANN because it is a California-based institution. But he recently announced that ICANN is "now an official NGO in Switzerland.""
Switzerland? Oy vey!
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