“Given the Internet's importance to the world's economy, it is essential that the underlying DNS of the Internet remain stable and secure. As such, the United States is committed to taking no action that would have the potential to adversely impact the effective and efficient operation of the DNS.”

The US had been expected to hand over control of the 'root' (list of authorised domains) in September 2006.

The DoC has a contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).  ICANN is the organisation with a technical overview of the Internet.  It is based in the US but following criticism has made established offices abroad and made other efforts to become more international and representative.

In reality ICANN does more than just oversee technical aspects.  It introduced a tax on buying and selling domain names earlier this year.  And in June it approved a .xxx domain name extension, described by several commentators as a virtual red-light area. 

Stuart Lawley, Chairman of the ICM registry which made the proposal, said:

"Apart from child pornography, which is completely illegal, we're really not in the content-monitoring business."

Some have called for greater control and even censorship of the Internet.  There may be changes in who oversees the Internet in the coming years.  Given that some are unhappy at the US' level of control, one alternative is the UN’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU).     

Whoever oversees the Internet, many users will be keen to see an absolute minimum of intervention.  The Internet as it stands is broadly self-governing and a lot of people will want to see it stay that way.