Abstract
INTRODUCTION 188 I. THE AFFIRMATION OF COMMITMENTS IN CONTEXT ......... 190 A. A Short History of the ICANN–DOC Relationship ........ 190 B. Key Aspects of the Affirmation 198 1. What’s There 198 a. DOC’s Promises 199 b. ICANN’s Promises 200 2. What’s Not There 203 C. What the Affirmation Tells Us About ICANN’s Legal Status and About Its Future 207 II. DOES THE DNS MATTER? 210 A. Economic and Market Power Over Domain-Name Service Providers 211 B. Regulatory Power Over Registrants and Other EndUsers 214 C. Political Power Over Speech and Other Uses of the Internet 215 D. The Myth of the DNS’s Geo-Strategic Power 219 CONCLUSION 223 POSTSCRIPT 225 APPENDIX: TEXT OF AFFIRMATION OF COMMITMENTS 228