Internet Usage Becomes More Global

The U.S. government said Wednesday it had ended its 11-year contract with the nonprofit body that oversees key aspects of the Internet's architecture, after demands from other countries for more say in how the Web works. The move addresses mounting criticism in recent years that no one country should have sole control over important underpinnings of the Internet, such as determining domain name suffixes like ".com."

The criticism has intensified as Internet usage has soared around the world and become critical to economies and governments. Some countries, including China, have suggested they would build their own version of the Internet if the matter wasn't resolved.

Icann, which is based in Marina del Rey, Calif., was established in 1998 by the Clinton administration as a way to ensure that important Internet governance decisions, primarily addressing, were coordinated by a single body. The plan was for the Commerce Department to oversee the body, with veto power over important decisions, until Icann became strong enough to operate on its own as a private-sector organization.

It was considered essential that one body make such decisions to ensure that all users of the Internet were operating with the same address book, known as the domain-name system. The power of the Internet lies in part in this universality. Typing in www.ibm.com allows a user, whether in Paris or Pittsburgh, to reach the same Web site.

While the Internet was started in the U.S., today just 15% of the world's estimated 1.7 billion Internet users reside in North America, according to internetworldstats.com.

Icann is also planning to open up by next year domain suffixes to a wide variety of words, such as dot-airport and dot-food. The process has prompted concerns from some that the change could infringe on owners of well-known brands, potentially delaying the process.