Post Script to my post concerning the Obama administration’s decision to cede control over ICANN to some un-specified international body (http://www.mecmoss.com/is-the-golden-age-of-the-internet-about-to-end/  ):

a)      The announcement of the decision (http://www.ntia.doc.gov/press-release/2014/ntia-announces-intent-transition-key-internet-domain-name-functions ) was made by the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) – which means, technically, that it was not literally made by the President.  To me, that carries about as much weight as saying that the IRS’s vendetta against conservative groups was technically not conducted by the President.  As in, aren’t these agencies of the executive branch of the U.S. government, meaning that the agencies and their leaders report to the President and that, as a matter of both legal and political responsibility, the President is responsible for their actions? 

b)     If anyone is imagining that the ceding of U.S. governmental control over ICANN is no big deal, and if it does not work out, we can just rescind and reverse the action, think again.  This genie, once out of the bottle, is never going back in, no matter what.  Not even a Republican President and a Republican-controlled Senate and House could regain ICANN control without the consent of whatever coalition or consortium or other assembly of foreign powers became the beneficiary of the give-away.  In other words, China and Russia would have to agree.  Think that is going to happen? 

While you are thinking, remember that the current structure, with various agencies of the U.S. government  in control of the various Internet-governance duties now performed by ICANN, has been working since Day One – essentially over the entire history of the Internet, which goes back to at least a couple of decades before Al Gore invented it.  Warts and all, and despite pledges by various politicians that eventually ICANN should mature into some kind of UN-type internationalist stature, the fact is that the entire, mind-bending, history-altering, economically colossal development of the Internet has occurred under the benevolent watch of the United States Government.  And now the Democrats want to change all that? 

And now Silicon Valley, birthplace of all those technology giants who are now in daily battle with the Chinese over every imaginable IT issue from IP theft to content censorship, is supposedly on board with this?  Remind you a bit of how the healthcare insurance companies, who are now on the verge of seeing huge chunks of their business being forfeited to the government’s silent agenda of single-payer, were originally on board with ObamaCare?