Tight control over domain names will damage the internet, says Bill Thompson.

One of the Internet's main governing bodies, Icann, has just finished its latest public meeting in Puerto Rico.

After a week of debates on subjects like Accountability and Transparency Management, and workshops on Domain Tasting, delegates, representatives and interested observers are all heading home, wondering whether anything useful has been achieved.

Icann, founded in 1988 by the US Government to take over responsibility for key aspects of the internet's technical architecture like domain names and IP addresses, has had a troubled history.

Many question its legitimacy, since it derives its authority from the US rather than the worldwide network community. Others question its commitment to openness and dialogue, especially in relation to the UN-run Internet Governance Forum.

And others wonder if Icann is really up to the job, pointing to its cumbersome bureaucracy, exemplified by the disastrous way it handled the proposal to create a new top level domain, .xxx, for sex sites.

After years of discussion the creation of this new domain, intended as a way of identifying pornographic websites to make them both easier to find and easier to avoid, was postponed because of objections from US politicians and then abandoned in March 2007.

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