>I'm sorry, how again is being more accountable to >governments an advantage for private-sector governance? I never said it was "an advantage for private-sector governance". I suggested turning the whole thing over to public-sector governance. Public-sector governance can make contracts with private actors; it happens all the time. >What exactly would it mean to have the ITU supplant ICANN -- >would the ITU assume ICANN's contractual relationships? Yes. And would re-negotiate and cancel some of them. >And just what are the advantages to users in the ITU? The ITU is charterd and controlled by the UN, which is chartered and controlled by the governments of the world. (To varying degrees in both cases, of course.) If you believe that the root is an international resource, having it run by someone accountable to the governments of the world makes more sense than having it run by someone who has shown almost no accountability to anyone. There is no way to predict whether this will benefit typical Internet users, nor to predict which users will benefit most. However, it is safe to predict that continuing with ICANN will continue to have the current level of benefit.