Good evening. Here are some links. Hope they help.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/09/30/1633208/US-Relaxes-Control-Over-ICANN?from=rss
story plus comment thread
affirmation of commitments between US Dept of Commerce(DOC) and ICANN:
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-30sep09-en.htm#affirmation
and commentary and background from Ed Hasbrouck
http://hasbrouck.org/icann/
I recommend starting with Hasbrouck especially if you’re not a geek or nerd.
excerpt from Hasbrouck’s blog: http://hasbrouck.org/icann/
1/4 page down
“Why does this matter?
ICANN is the poster child for those who believe in privatization and outsourcing to corporations not just of the provision of government services but of governance (government decision making) itself.
Authority to set policy for the Internet has been handed over by the USA Federal government to a private California corporation. In ICANN’s corporate world, corporate bylaws have replaced laws requiring open meetings, freedom of information, and due process. And arbitration by other private corporations has replaced law enforcement and appellate justice in the world of fee-based corporate “justice”.
As a private corporation, ICANN is exempt from open meetings laws, public records laws, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and other “sunshine” laws used by journalists and the public to obtain information about government policy-making activities. Journalists’ and others’ ability to observe and report on entities like ICANN, to which policy-making authority has been delegated, depends instead on enforcement of contracts and bylaws that guarantee access.”
Here’s a discussion:
http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2009/9/30/4337767.html
and another watchdog:
http://www.icannwatch.org/