short, two part question ICANN Vs. The World

[kmedcalf at dessus.com (Keith Medcalf)]

>The question at hand is.. Do countries/businesses have to affiliate or
>utilize any of those services provided by ICANN other than the assignment
>of an IP address? Â 

No.

>And can you get away with LAN/CAN/MAN stand-alone systems [instead of utilizing DNS-via-ICANN]??

Yes.

>Example:


>Is it legal to cut off those DNS systems and loop in backwards? Â (instead
>of bidirectional). Â ** Â I don't want my city/schools/other systems hooked
>into the World Wide Web. // someone let me know when you get a chance.

Yes.  Sounds like you want private (discontiguous) network space.  There is no need to be a part of the internet if you don't want to be, but that desire does not prevent you in any way from utilizing internet "technology" discontiguously (ie, separate and apart from the Internet).