Back when the Web was spun, nearly 20 years ago, the dream was simple. One network protocol, one network, a world connected, and people as well.
That dream has been fading for some time, but now it's pretty much over.
ICANN ended it this week, although the concept had already been on life support.
When it began letting domain names be written in languages other than English, the unified Web was basically dead. When a domain name is in Chinese, an American can't even type it, let alone know it. And if that's the domain's only name (increasingly that's the case) it's inaccessible outside the country.
What has been happening over the last few years is the gradual creation of national Internets, which can be controlled rigidly by national governments. China's is the most extensive, the largest as well as the most actively-censored Net in the world.
The decision to let anyone become a registrar, creating domains like .msft, .coke and .sports, is the natural outgrowth of all this balkanization. It effectively kills the domain squatting game (which is good), because a trademark holder can go from the from of the domain name to the back, and move all its operations there, for a sign-up fee of $185,000 and a yearly carrying charge.
For large companies it's a bargain. Corporations will get the effective power of governments to police their Internet-connected islands. Microsoft might allow its software partners to open .microsoft domains, but might then unilaterally seize those names if the partners enter into a legal dispute with them. The rules under which names will be given and rescinded, in other words, is up to the named registrar.
ICANN has said it won't be enabling cybersquatting here, so a rival to Microsoft won't be able to get .microsoft or any version of it. This makes ICANN a global trademark cop, which in obvious cases is OK, but may prove problematic down the road.
What's happening to the Net generally, however, is pernicious. Governments and large corporations are creating nets under their firm control, and the international world of .org and .com is going away. By 2015, the Internet will be completely policed, and where you are will determine what you can do online.
Freedom and understanding will not be the winners.
