Last night the United States Government ceded its control over the web saying that it could no longer expect to maintain its position as the ultimate authority over the internet. They transfered their authority over to a non-profit internet group ICANN. For the interim however the Governemt will stay in control over the net's root zone file.

In my opinion this is good and bad. For one the recent NSA controversies can be contested easier because the government now officially has no say in actions on the internet. Another good thing is possibly less piracy laws but that could go either way. The only thing that I really think is not good about this is it could allocate more power to companies like Verizon and Comcast because ICANN can't have an official ruling on any of their policies being an international authority rather than an American one (we all know how America deals with international Authority, WE DO WHAT WE WANT). So some positive stuff could come out of this. You can read the whole article here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07...icann_meeting/

#EDIT: As it turns out this story was not a confirmed story and now another story has a risen on the internet about how the same thing not being true. July 28, 2006