There's nothing stopping the UN - or you, me or anyone else - from setting up their own root name servers. Any computer could then use said servers either on their own, or at the same time as they continued to use the standard servers; all it would take is adding a single line to a single file on your own PC. In fact, such "alternative" servers already exist. Here's just one example:
http://www.opennic.unrated.net/
Of course, nobody - and I mean NOBODY - uses OpenNIC, or any other "alternative" domain name servers. Why? Because nobody - and I mean NOBODY, except for people and organizations that hate America in general - has ever had the slightest legitimate problem with how the United States has controlled those name servers.
Thanks for a good post on the subject.
On the other side of the equation, I have never been too crazed about the idea of the UN taking over the "Internet". If they do, there is nothing to stop free people (likely started by Americans) from starting up their own Net.
I think there will always be a free Net. It's a genie that can't be put back in the bottle. If these servers go to a controlled system, it won't be long before a free system emerges.
Here's a silly question you can probably answer. What if I wanted to make a static local copy of a DNS server for the potential event that something bad happens (like terrorists crash it, etc, or the UN starts taxing, who knows.)
How big would that file be? And, or, is there some easy automated way for me to build just a snapshot of IP addresses of my bookmark list? Obviously, over time the static nature of it would deteriorate its accuracy, but at least for some sites it would keep working.
For example, if the UN controlled the root servers and they wanted to insert a filter server in front of FreeRepublic, couldn't they just insert their server in the DNS pointers instead of directly to FR's?
Perhaps that's true, but (except for the geeks) the effort would go nowhere fast.
Personal computers do not use the root name servers directly. They use their ISP name servers, and the PCs get those addresses from the ISP's DHCP server. Very few PC users (especially Windows weenies users) would know how to configure another alternate name server.
Thus, since the ISPs won't pick up the alternate roots, the vast majority of PCs will continue to use the ICANN hierarchy.
OpenNIC specifies that you put their name servers first in your list, so they will be the first ones queried. Any security guru will tell you that this is extremely dangerous because of the potential for domain hijacking and phishing schemes, etc.