KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, July 14 (UPI) -- The not-for-profit organization that acts as gatekeeper for the Internet's addresses is preparing for a meeting in Malaysia on whether to auction addresses.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which will consider the question at a meeting that begins Saturday, is being pushed by both sides, the International Herald Tribune reported Wednesday.
Currently, Internet addresses are determined by the corporation on the basis of an applicant's merit. It has long been criticized as being too pro-United States. Auctioning addresses would abolish some of the corporation's discretion.
On Tuesday, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development came out for auctions.
But Robert Shaw, Internet strategy and policy adviser for the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union, a U.N. agency, expressed reservation. Auctions "may make sense economically, but the question is whether this is a market or a public-trust type function," he said.
"When you see the type of specific applications that are being made for generic top-level domains, it is easy to see that it shouldn't be considered a marketplace. How would the EU feel about the highest bidder getting .euro?"
