The US Government Accountability Office finds it unlikely that the root zone or the DNS are US government property

In September 2015, several US congressmen asked the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) to issue a legal opinion regarding the property implications of the proposed transition, by the US Department of Commerce, of the US government’s oversight over the IANA functions. They also asked whether the transition would result in the transfer of any kind of US government property without the legal authorisation by Congress, as required by the US Constitution. GAO has issued its opinion and concluded that ‘it is unlikely that either the domain name system or the authoritative root zone file […] is US government property’. It has also found that ‘NTIA has the requisite authority to terminate the agreement [with ICANN], and, thus, to dispose of this Government property interest’.