Since 1985, non-state actors under Jon Postel's leadership have
experimented creating virtual national spaces on the Internet through
so-called "country code top level domain names" (ccTLDs). There are 251
ccTLDs on the Internet. In 1998, the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) - the newly established coordination body for
Internet addresses including ccTLDs - stressed out the principle of
private sector leadership instead of public sector administration of
Internet identifiers. ICANN's coordination of ccTLDs required state
actors to comply with the principle of private sector leadership in a
top-down manner.
As of 2009, the question of how to govern ccTLDs is still disputed at
the national level between state actors and non-state actors, with state
actors starting to reassert their power over ccTLDs, ignoring the
principle of private sector leadership recommended by ICANN. This study
presents five different national ccTLDs dispute cases, to investigate
why national ccTLDs disputes have increased after the establishment of
ICANN and how are state actors trying to regain control over ccTLDs.
To download and read this article by Y. J. Park in the International
Journal of Communications Law and Policy, see:
ijclp.net/files/ijclp_web-doc_10-13-2009.pdf
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