In Ruling the Root, Milton Mueller uses the theoretical framework ofinstitutional economics to analyze the global policy and governance problems createdby the assignment of Internet domain names and addresses. "The root" is the top ofthe domain name hierarchy and the Internet address space. It is the only point ofcentralized control in what is otherwise a distributed and voluntaristic network ofnetworks. Both domain names and IP numbers are valuable resources, and theirassignment on a coordinated basis is essential to the technical operation of theInternet. Mueller explains how control of the root is being leveraged to control theInternet itself in such key areas as trademark and copyright protection, surveillance of users, content regulation, and regulation of the domain name supplyindustry.Control of the root originally resided in an informally organized technicalelite comprised mostly of American computer scientists. As the Internet becamecommercialized and domain name registration became a profitable business, a six-yearstruggle over property rights and the control of the root broke out among Internettechnologists, business and intellectual property interests, internationalorganizations, national governments, and advocates of individual rights. By the late1990s, it was apparent that only a new international institution could resolveconflicts among the factions in the domain name wars. Mueller recounts thefascinating process that led to the formation of a new international regime aroundICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. In the process, heshows how the vaunted freedom and openness of the Internet is being diminished bythe institutionalization of the root.

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