If you like your Internet, you may not be able to keep it

The Internet, created and managed by the U.S. government from the 1960s to the 1990s, is clearly the most dramatic and successful example of technology transfer from government to private sector.

That transfer began in 1993 when the world was first allowed to use the Internet for commercial purposes. At that point, Internet governance and management was contractually transferred from the government to a contractor, Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI).

The NSI agreement was a lucrative one because it...