U.S. Set to Give up Its Last Power Over the Internet

The U.S. government will give up its last measure of control over the Internet, possibly as soon as next year.

An agreement between the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is set to expire in 2015 and will not be renewed. The news was first reported by the Washington Post.

"The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today launched a process to transition the role of the United States Government relating to the Internet's unique identifiers system," ICANN wrote in a blog post.

ICANN was founded in 1998 by the U.S. government and oversees the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which regulates IP addresses and the Domain Name System (DNS), in addition to other responsibilities. Read more...