DAVID CANTON – For the London Free Press – August 13, 2005

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Internet control. It should be no surprise that the Internet requires some sort of co-ordination to make it function.

We take it for granted, but someone has to control how it works. That someone is a U.S.- based non-profit organization called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In simple terms, if the Internet was a postal system, ICANN ensures that the addresses on the letters work.

Some are concerned about a U.S.-based organization managing the Internet. Developing countries are concerned with the monopoly of U.S. power regarding Internet governance. They maintain that the Western countries that had earlier Internet access took all of the available addresses required for connection and have left a limited number for developing countries to share.

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