Re:ICANN = the good guys. (Score 1)

The ICANN is on probation. So long as they seem to be making progress towards breaking the NSI monopoly, they will be tolerated by the IETF, however if the ICANN goes rogue, there are still technical mechanisms available to reign both them and NSI in again.

The major problem is that Jon Postel died at the worst possible moment, when his vigilance was/is most required.

NSI is fighting for its life, and its officers know that. Their "service" has been so poor over the term that they've had the InterNIC contract that the minute there is viable competition, it is likely that most registrants will switch providers, and NSI will dry up and blow away (but not before the Securities & Exchange Commission gets ahold of them and prosecutes the corporate officers for fraud; they claimed that they owned ".com" in their prospectus. They do not).

We live in interesting times.