A spokeswoman for the European Union's commissioner for information society and media accused the U.S. at the time of "political interference" in the decision.
But political interference could become a bigger problem for ICANN if the U.S. government relinquishes oversight of the domain name system too soon.
ICANN could become susceptible to more heavy-handed influence by other countries or the United Nations, said Tim Ruiz, vice president of corporate development and policy planning for Go Daddy Group Inc., which holds the largest registrar of domain names.
But Lynn St. Amour, president and chief executive of the Internet Society, an international group that focuses on global cooperation and coordination of the network, said the United States could lessen its oversight of ICANN, serving only as a backstop in emergencies.
Kneuer said the U.S. was committed to eventually allowing ICANN to fully control the domain name system. But he reiterated a Commerce Department statement released last year that the U.S. would continue its oversight of one function of the system indefinitely -- authorizing changes to the master file of Internet addresses. Improper changes to what's known as the authoritative root zone file could destabilize the Internet.
