On March 14, the NTIA (the U.S. Commerce Department's
National Telecommunications and Information Administration)
announced that it would immediately start a process to transition
control of "Key Internet Domain Name Functions" away from
the U.S. government.
Since 1998, the NTIA has overseen the administration of various
functions relating to the "root zone" of the Internet
pursuant to the "IANA Contract" with ICANN (the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Under the IANA
Contract, ICANN coordinated the assignment of technical Internet
protocol parameters, administered certain responsibilities
associated with Internet DNS root zone management, and allocated
Internet numbering resources, under U.S. government oversight.
These "IANA Functions" are a critical part of maintaining
the "plumbing" of the Internet. The IANA Contract has
been renewed every three years, and is next set to expire September
30, 2015. While the plan all along had been to
