Good article - the control of the infrastructure of the internet is a large problem today. For historical context, I suggest looking into Paul Garrin's project Name.Space - it highlights the often-invisible control of TLDs and DNSs by companies close to their respective governments (often granted sole control over their market). Although Name.Space was more pertinent while Network Solutions still held a monopoly over domain registration, it seems like the same kind of problem continues today.
About Name.Space: http://namespace.us/about.php
A good interview of Paul Garrin can be found here: http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-9805/msg0005...