Where does ICANN get its authority?
DNS was developed under the supervision of DARPA, SRI, and Jon Postel. With the shutdown of ARPANET in 1990, National Science Foundation took over DARPA’s role. NSF gained USG (United States Government) statutory authority in that role, and, on Dec. 31, 1992, delegated DNS supervision to Network Solutions, Inc., under five-yearcommercial contract — which expired Sept. 30, 1998. Network Solutions’s current contract, which introduces competitors for some key functions, expires Septmber 30, 2000. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) works as a “global consensus entity”, aiming at transition away from USG technical coordination of DNS, and was formed in response to a US Department of Commerce January 30, 1998 Green Paper, http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/domainname130.htm , and a June 1998 White Paper, http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/6_5_98dns.htm , calling for formation of such a non-governmental group to supervise an open, competitive DNS-re
