There has been much talk and effort by various countries and international bodies about wresting control of the Internet from the US. The US of course created the basic infrastructure of the internet back in the 60's starting with DARPANet. Universities got on board in the 70's and 80's and eventually it became what we have today. It is at its foundation a US project, worse than that, a US Defense Dept. project. Now that the whole world is using the Internet there are a lot of countries that don't want the US to have control and oversight of the internet they've come to depend on. Recently there have been many proposals to internationalize the Internet to take it away from US control. Jacque Chirac, the President of France has said the Internet should come under UN control and should be taxed. Can you think of a worse scenario? The monies, coming mostly from the US as we are the biggest users, could then be used to support some of his pet projects. China would like to see a stronger censoring system put into place under the guise of national security. Other countries have been trying for years to put their own stamp on the internet. I personally believe the heart of this issue is envy of the US for having put this thing together, this is killing the Europeans, particularly the French, and most importantly internationalizing the internet would allow it to be taxed, which is what the Europeans want and will happen if the Europeans get their way. Could the Internet be broken up? It's possible but I doubt it. It would require other countries to take themselves off the Net and creating their own version. There could be gateways between the systems (theirs and the rest of the world) but I think everyone knows that this would be a really bad idea and would cut their country off from much of the benefit of the Net. Quite frankly I think they're all too lazy and unwilling to spend the money to do it, easier and cheaper to try to take it away from us. I think what you'll continue to hear is a greater and louder call for the Internet to be internationalized, soon after rich countries (read US) could be taxed by the international body in charge, presumably the UN, and the money would go in the Black Hole of the UN. I can't think of too many things worse than these people, particularly the Europeans, getting their way with the internet. This is one thing the US has done right and world is benefiting from it. In fact it may be the most important invention in human history. Letting the UN or any other international body take it over would be a travesty we must all fight against. Bob Taylor