[LINK] (FWD) Australian Internet Body Seeks Return Of ".au" ccTLD (Re: Link Institute: auDA v. Elz ?!)

[David Chia]

http://www.adlawbyrequest.com/international/au61801.shtml

The last sentence seems to have explained a lot.

<quote>

    Why This Matters: When scientists first created the
    domain name system, the U.S. bodies that administered
    the Internet did not consider ccTLDs to be the property
    of their respective countries. Long after many ccTLDs
    were assigned to private individuals, Australian
    representative to ICANN Paul Twomey suggested that
    two-letter country codes should be considered the
    sovereign property of national governments. Several
    countries have recently asked ICANN to force private
    ccTLD administrators to turn over the codes. If ICANN
    acts, it would in effect grant ownership of all ccTLDs to
    national governments.

</quote>