Declan McCullagh reports for CNET on the first full day of the UN ICT Task Force's Global Forum on Internet Governance, in which "delegates from around the world gathered to take a preliminary step toward UN involvement in some of the areas that are bedeviling Internet users and governments alike, including spam, network security, privacy and the regulation of the technical underpinnings that control the sprawling global network. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan set the tone in a speech Thursday, criticizing the current system through which Internet standards are set and domain names are handled, a process currently dominated by the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. Such structures 'must be made accessible and responsive to the needs of all the world's people,'Annan said...
"Although the UN process is still in its early stages, the result could dramatically reshape the way the Internet is run and put an end to some of the informal, collaborative processes that exist today....
"Dozens of delegates from developing nations echoed Annan's remarks throughout the rest of the day, arguing that their governments do not have a voice in the way the Internet is operated and that more money and investment from richer nations is the only way to end the so-called digital divide... Many delegates to the Global Forum on Internet Governance appeared to favor the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency, taking over at least part of ICANN's functions... 'We're in danger of overregulating,' not underregulating, said Karl Auerbach, a former ICANN board member and a veteran Internet engineer...."