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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.
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