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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Regional Address
Registries, Governance and Internet Freedom</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><b><i><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:bold;
font-style:italic'>Abstract: </span></font></i></b><i><font size=2><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-style:italic'>Regional Internet Address Registries
(RIRs) are private, nonprofit and transnational governance entities that
evolved organically with the growth of the Internet to manage and coordinate
Internet Protocol addresses. The RIR’s management of Internet address
resources is becoming more contentious and more central to global debates over
Internet governance. This is happening because of two transformational
problems: 1) the depletion of the IPv4 address space; and 2) the attempt to
introduce more security into the Internet routing system. We call these
problems “transformational” because they raise the stakes of the
RIR’s policy decisions, make RIR processes more formal and
institutionalized, and have the potential to create new, more centralized
control mechanisms over Internet service providers and users. A danger in this
transition is that the higher stakes and centralized control mechanisms become
magnets for political contention, just as ICANN’s control of the DNS root
did. In order to avoid a repeat of the problems of ICANN, we need to think
carefully about the relationship between RIRs, governments, and Internet
freedom. In particular, we need to shield RIRs from interference by national
governments, and strengthen and institutionalize their status as neutral
technical coordinators with limited influence over other areas of Internet
governance.<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><i><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-style:italic'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Download: <a
href="http://internetgovernance.org/pdf/RIRs-IGP-hyderabad.pdf">http://internetgovernance.org/pdf/RIRs-IGP-hyderabad.pdf</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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