E-Book Overview
In Ruling the Root, Milton Mueller uses the theoretical framework of institutional economics to analyze the global policy and governance problems created by the assignment of Internet domain names and addresses. "The root" is the top of the domain name hierarchy and the Internet address space. It is the only point of centralized control in what is otherwise a distributed and voluntaristic network of networks. Both domain names and IP numbers are valuable resources, and their assignment on a coordinated basis is essential to the technical operation of the Internet. Mueller explains how control of the root is being leveraged to control the Internet itself in such key areas as trademark and copyright protection, surveillance of users, content regulation, and regulation of the domain name supply industry.Control of the root originally resided in an informally organized technical elite comprised mostly of American computer scientists. As the Internet became commercialized and domain name registration became a profitable business, a six-year struggle over property rights and the control of the root broke out among Internet technologists, business and intellectual property interests, international organizations, national governments, and advocates of individual rights. By the late 1990s, it was apparent that only a new international institution could resolve conflicts among the factions in the domain name wars. Mueller recounts the fascinating process that led to the formation of a new international regime around ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. In the process, he shows how the vaunted freedom and openness of the Internet is being diminished by the institutionalization of the root.
E-Book Content
Ruling the Root
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Ruling the Root Internet Governance and the Taming of Cyberspace
Milton L. Mueller
The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England
© 2002 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. This book was set in Sabon by Graphic Composition, Inc., Athens, Georgia Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mueller, Milton. Ruling the root : Internet governance and the taming of cyberspace / Milton L. Mueller. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-13412-8 (hc : alk. paper) 1. Internet—Government policy. 2. Internet addresses—Government policy. 3. Cyberspace—Government policy. 4. Telecommunication policy. 5. Right of property. 6. Institutional economics. 7. Organizational change. I. Title. TK5105.875.I57 M845 2002 004.678—dc21 2002020024
Contents
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Introduction: The Problem of the Root 1.1 A Constitutional Moment 3 1.2 The Root 5 1.3 Governance 7 1.4 Institutionalization 10 1.5 Goals and Plan of the Book 11
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I
The Root as Resource
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The Basic Political Economy of Identifiers 15 2.1 Uniqueness Requires Coordination 15 2.2 Defining the Space 16 2.3 Assigning Unique Values 17 2.4 Governance Arrangements 26 2.5 An Example: The Ethernet Address Space 27 2.6 Review of the Framework 29
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The Internet Name and Address Spaces 3.1 The Internet Address Space 32 3.2 The Internet Name Space 39 3.3 The DNS Root 47 3.4 Conclusion 56
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The Root and Institutional Change: Analytical Framework 4.1 Formation of Property Rights 58 4.2 Property Rights 60 4.3 Technological Change, Endowment, and Appropriation 4.4 Institutionalization 63 4.5 Applying the Framework to Internet Governance 67
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