MARINA DEL REY, CA — While the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers didn’t exactly quote Patrick Henry in a letter to the Department of Commerce earlier this month, the chairman of the organization did say it was time for the U.S. government to give liberty to the Web’s addressing oversight body.In a cover letter that accompanied a progress report to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush summarized the accomplishments ICANN has made since the private, not-for-profit corporation signed a Joint Project Agreement with the U.S. Government in 1998. The JPA grew out of the Memorandum of Understanding that established the working relationship between ICANN and the government and set the ground rules under which ICANN would be released from official oversight. Now at the halfway point of the JPA’s intended lifespan, ICANN has accomplished its goals sooner than expected, indicating it is able to continue its mission unfettered, Dengate Thrush noted in the letter.

Moreover, by releasing ICANN, the federal government would be making a powerful statement to the Internet community at large, Dengate Thrush indicated.

“…[T]he JPA was a necessary instrument in ICANN’s formative years. But now, the JPA contributes to a misperception that the [domain name system] is managed and overseen on a daily basis by the U.S. government,” he wrote. “Ending the JPA will provide … confidence to all participants that the investment of time, thought and energy for over nine years has secured an internet coordination body that will always be owned by all stakeholders, not managed or overseen by any one entity. Finally, it will assist in delivering on the original ideal that no single government should manage or be perceived to manage this function….”

ICANN’s complete report will be the focus of a mid-term review by the DOC in March. A lengthy document containing more than 100 pages, the report outlines the progress ICANN has made on each of the 10 objectives in the JPA and provides evidential documentation to support ICANN’s claims.

“The JPA has been fundamentally achieved, and what’s more important is for the Department of Commerce and ICANN to talk about what the next stage looks like,” ICAN President Paul Twomey told the BBC News.

Twomey also indicated that going forward, the role of governments in ICANN should be confined to the organization’s Governmental Advisory Committee and not extend to dictating its agenda or development.