February 1, 2007

NTIA, Political Commissars, and ICANN

Now that our president has instituted a system of political commissars to ensure that all administrative decisions by administrative agencies adhere to executive political correctness one wonders what will happen to NTIA and its imposition of anti-competitive and anti-innovative regulations via its unacknowledged child, ICANN?

Under this order, many, perhaps most, administrative decisions (which includes decisions not to act) will have to be submitted to, and approved by, a new "Regulatory Policy Office" run by a politically appointed "Regulatory Policy Officer".  In other words, just like in the old Soviet Union, the government will be seeded with political commissars whose job is to ensure that the presidential party line is followed.

There is no doubt that under this new executive order NTIA will have to submit its decisions and polices regarding ICANN to the Department of Commerce's "Regulatory Policy Office" and its Regulatory Policy Officer.

ICANN, and NTIA's policies with regard to ICANN, are anathema to the ideals of free enterprise and limited government.  One might hope that these are among the political ideals of our current president (and any president).  Will these new political operatives look to those ideals or will they simply allow the NTIA status quo, a status quo that imposes a government sponsored guild onto the internet, to continue?

Posted by karl at February 1, 2007 3:48 PM