Who really owns Gondwanaland's domain?

14.04.2006
Exactly who owns a country's Internet domain? This was the question put to delegates attending the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) conference in Wellington last week.

A panel of government and Internet community delegates heard a number of scenarios dealing with government involvement with the Internet.

Gondwanaland, a fictitious country, and its domain, was used as a basis for discussing the issues around who "owns" a country's domain.

The first scenario supposed that Gondwanaland domain's manager passed control of the domain on to his or her cousin. Should they be allowed to do so? If not, who should be consulted?

The government should be consulted, said Frank March, from New Zealand's Ministry of Economic Development and InternetNZ, if only as a representative of the people. With the Internet so heavily used today, you have to ask: "Is .nz owned by the New Zealand community [or] is it public property?"

Before allowing the domain to be handed over, ICANN should at least check some form of public consultation had taken place, says March.