America still owns the internet

[Tags: newmedia]. The not-hugely-surprising outcome of talks about who controls the internet has ended in a deal which basically amounts to the US continuing to be in control, with a new body that has no teeth allowed to talk about things. From The Guardian:

"The US government will retain overall control of the technology which powers the internet - its domain name system, root servers and the oversight of the California-based, not-for-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) which looks after it all - for the foreseeable future.

"An Internet Governance Forum will be created to discuss and decide upon the over-reaching issues of the internet, but, crucially, will not have any oversight powers. Governments have also agreed to work within existing organisations and infrastructures to gradually transform the way the internet is run."