Who owns the internet?

There has to be an orderly address system. Domain registry allows for that orderly address system. Otherwise 1,000 people could all call their side yahoo.com and how would you get to the real one?

I mean, i know no one owns the internet, but then why can websites charge you to have a domain name? ---Websites might bundle together web hosting -- use of their resources (for example, server usage and proprietary website development tools), and access to higher level communication infrastructure than the typical consumer or small company wants to or can afford to develop on its own -- and name registry, a service they offer you as an accredited intermediary to you and the actual larger and separate entity responsible for domain name management (ICANN). The websites you are talking about can charge you because they provide a service, simplifying and making cost effective a necessary process for network identification. Consider it similar to those businesses you see that offer car registratioin services. They did not implement nor do they regulate how license plates are actually assigned and provided, but they provide you (at a cost to the business, and thus a charge to the consumer) with an intermediary to dealing with the official registration entity (the DMV/state). You choose to pay for such a company's services because they are cost and time efficient. Who gave them the power to do that? Is it just because they offer an easy way to have a website? --Essentially yes. The 'power' they have to do anything is only as strong as their relative competitiveness in in the marketplace for the services they offer and how the public values it. As a name registry agent, however, their power isn't given to them; they pay for it as part of contractual agreement to handle the details required to register domain names on behalf of individuals who pay for that service. They are restricted as to what they can do by policies and standards developed by ICANN, the organization they contract with to offer the registry, being the recognized authority in performing many of the organizational functions without which the Internet couldn't effectively operate. Is it possible to have a domain that you own but you don't have to pay for? Why or why not? --Yes. With a couple of computers, some software and a server you can set up a domain in your bedroom and call it anything you like. (To an extent, the network you might set up to share your PC, laptop and printer at home is a kind of domain, but it's categorically referred to as a workgroup.) But if this name didn't adhere to a specific naming standard, and if it were already registered to someone else, you just wouldn't find an authorized agent who would register your name to use on the Internet as opposed to your bedroom, as they could not do so and be in accordance with their contractual requirements for the service they perform. Similarly, you could make your own license plate in your room with the right materials and tools, but you wouldn't be able to get your car registered with this plate if it didn't follow the rules for lettering/numbering and you wouldn't be able to register a license plate number that already exists out there . The reasons for this are obvious, and the logical concerns that develop from not uniquely identifying individuals in any large system led to development of ICANN, and later to the establishment of their contracted registrars who we more socially recognize as the guys who get to approve the name we want for our website.

I've seen good answers, but as far as specifically domain names, sites like godaddy act sort of like brokers for IANA ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Assigned_Numbers_Authority ) more general info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_registry So the IANA gives them the power to sell domain names.

Al Gore

It's kinda like the first person there got the first chance to register the domain name in a similar fashion to copyright or patents (just similar only).