Alternative internet proposed by disgruntled file-sharers

New Scientist : Activists hope to construct an alternative to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which controls the internet’s domain name system (DNS)—an internet phone book, in essence. They complain that ICANN takes down web domains at the whim of politicians and industry bosses, if the sites are considered to infringe the law, writes Paul Marks for New Scientist. The proposed registry would initially work like existing systems, but would eventually become a decentralized, peer-to-peer system in which volunteers each run a portion of a DNS on their own computers. By breaking up the internet phone book and hosting it in pieces, they would strip ICANN of its power. Any domain it tries to take away would still be accessible on the alternative registry. According to Ben Laurie, a London-based security consultant and a former technical adviser to WikiLeaks, the alternative internet idea is eminently feasible, but persuading everybody to use it is going to be difficult.