A decision by the United States to indefinitely retain oversight of the main computers
that control internet traffic drew concerns Friday from foreign officials, many of whom
want an international body in charge instead.

"When the internet is being increasingly utilized for private use, by businesses and so
forth, there is a societal debate about whether it's befitting to have one country
maintaining checks on that," said Masahiko Fujimoto of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
and Communications' data communications division. "It's likely to fuel that debate."

"The signals and words and intentions and policies need to be clear so all of us benefiting
in the world from the internet and in the U.S. economy can have confidence there will
be continued stewardship," Gallagher told The Associated Press on Thursday.

He said the declaration, officially made in a four-paragraph statement posted online, was
in response to growing security threats and increased reliance on the internet globally
for communications and commerce.

Though the computers themselves — 13 in all, known as root servers — are in private
hands, they contain government-approved lists of the 260 or so internet suffixes, such
as ".com."

Although one thing I have wanted to know about the root servers, was their specification, their software and hardware.

I wonder if there are really 13 root DNS servers or they are just the visible side of it all. As pointed out before, a government that has control over all the internet flow can cause havoc, why would the US let go of it, if they want to have control over every single aspect of the globe? And because of that, I don't think that US government agencies would just let the internet "flow freely", being them who initially created it, with a purpose of course.