U.S. To Maintain Internet Control

A U.N. conference on global internet issues has spawned an agreement that will work to combat cybercrime and e-mail “spam,” but which also leaves the internet firmly under U.S. control, a controversial move opposed by many other countries. “A U.N. working group, followed by governments including China, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and the 25-member European Union, had all proposed taking away control of the domain name ‘root zone file’ from the United States and handing it off to a multinational agency… The United States and business groups had opposed the proposals, arguing that multilateral control would compromise the stability of the system, and that the current model has generally worked well.”