ICANN, .net, .com and .org - Who owns the entity?
 

I tried Googling "Who owns ICANN" but did not get much info. Can anyone point me in the right direction and explain to me who owns .net .org and .com? I know someone in a post said they were American but how? I thought that the internet was "owned" if you will by many all countries as a non-profit organization. Does anyone have insight into this? Thanks.

--art

Verisign has the temporary rights to run the the .com and .net registries. The domains are rented anually, and the lease is owned by the domain registrant. WIPO is the quasi-legal organisation that settles the disputes over domain ownership and copyright infringements. ICANN is privately owned and appointed by a some committee and is responsible for allocating IP numbers and the method of converting names to these numbers. Sorry I don't know who sits on the committee, but I believe that the US gov has something to do with it.

All this has been posted from memory, so please contradict me if I've got it wrong.