March 2008 - At-Large - lists.icann.org

Press coverage of NTIA/JPA event
by Brendler, Beau March 11, 2008

March 11, 2008

FYI, if you haven't already seen it. BB WASHINGTON INTERNET DAILY February 29, 2008 Friday Businesses Attack ICANN for Registrar, Registry Influence SECTION: Vol. 9 No. 41 LENGTH: 1234 words Business gets short shrift from ICANN in areas unduly influenced by registrars and registries, representatives of industry said Thursday at an NTIA meeting on the agency's mid-term review of its joint project agreement (JPA) with ICANN. Speakers generally credited ICANN with much progress in the agreement's first 18 months. Under it, the nonprofit must meet 10 conditions to escape U.S. oversight. But they said the ICANN board's aloofness, lack of contract enforcement and unsavory domain-name practices, and reforms proposed for the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council, are concerns. The meeting began amid controversy over sales practices and alleged lax oversight by ICANN and domain-name managers and sellers. NeuStar and Afilias proposed limits on their .biz and .info domains for "tasting" -- purchasers testing names' profitability for five days and returning them for a full credit (WID Feb 11 p1). A suit recently accused Network Solutions of "front-running" -- warehousing domain names searched for by users so other registrars can't sell them -- and ICANN of not barring the practice (WID Feb 27 p9). ICANN groups are investigating both practices. The problem in measuring ICANN's performance in the JPA is that "they're really just getting off the ground," said Steven Metalitz, counsel to the Coalition for Online Accountability, a copyright industry group. ICANN has done little to punish contract violations by its partners, such as registrars, giving the impression that the nonprofit lacks practical authority, he said. Scott Evans, a lawyer for Yahoo who helped draft ICANN's dispute-resolution policy, said only by suing parties it finds out of compliance can ICANN show it's serious. Martin Boyle of .uk registry Nominet warned that the U.S., ICANN's "benign dictator," could be replaced by a "malign oligarchy" of nations with designs for regulating the Internet unless ICANN shows it can defend itself. A "false sense of security" marks the mid-term review, which is like the first half of a school semester, NetChoice Coalition Executive Director Steve DelBianco said from the audience. ICANN's fast-track development of internationalized domain names contrasts with the world's view of the project as an "abject failure," and the Internet Governance Forum is "waiting for a failure" at ICANN to strengthen its hand in moving Internet governance to the UN, he said. "The second half of the semester is going to be a rocky one where the private sector support essentially disappears," he said. "Many in the business community feel that we are marginalized" and that ICANN is becoming a "trade association" for registrars and registries, Evans said with visible restraint. "We take great umbrage" at the suggestion that ICANN naturally would pay more heed to managers and sellers of domain names because they pay dues to ICANN, he said. Yahoo spends millions on services from the groups and has a direct contract with ICANN, and Evans circles the world for ICANN meetings at which he's largely ignored, he said. A footnote in ICANN's report on the agreement's comment period especially incensed businesses, characterizing their 75 comments, about a third of the total, as being from "lobbyists," he said. Registrars and registries have an "outsized role in the policy development process," and a plan under consideration at the GNSO Council would cut business influence, Metalitz said. Network Solutions Chief Policy Counsel Jonathon Nevett, who chairs ICANN's registrar constituency, objected to registrars and registries being characterized as in cahoots. The role of registrars such as Network Solutions would shrink under the GNSO plan, he said. Registrars under contract are already at a disadvantage because they must follow "consensus policies" finished only after contracts are signed, Nevett said. He assailed the "competitive advantage" of registrars without contracts. It's unclear if the registrar accreditation agreement even addresses tasting, an issue ICANN needs to resolve, said Beau Brendler, director of Consumer Reports WebWatch and member of ICANN's at-large advisory committee. But he said the Internet user constituency was "beginning to form bonds" with registrars. Nevett said tasting is sensitive to the market -- users always can take their domains to one of 800- plus other registrars if unhappy with a registrar's practices. ICANN's proposed nonrefundable transaction fee for purchased names will "seriously curb" tasting, he said. Metalitz warned ICANN not to make a tasting decision after a "closed discussion" with registrars. Phil Corwin, counsel to the Internet Commerce Association, said from the audience that the domain-name investor group worries about proposed "national law exceptions" in the new accreditation agreement, which he said could encourage "forum-shopping" by registrars. ICA expected to review a new agreement before ICANN's mid-February meeting in New Delhi and now fears ICANN will release the proposal just before the meeting in Paris, leaving little time for review before approval, he said. ICANN's proposed 20 cent fee for purchased domains may have scant effect in .com, despite the success of the 5 cent fee approved by .org, which virtually stopped tasting on that TLD, said a spokesman for the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse. There was never much tasting in .org anyway, "and you should know that," he said. ICANN seems to be disconnected from average Internet users, as evidenced by low interest in TLDs introduced the past five years, he said. The .org model wouldn't necessarily work for .com, Nevett said, but ICANN can apply its own fee to gTLD names without any action necessary by registries, which should mitigate .com tasting. The ICANN board will be insulated from accountability until it revises its bylaws, Nevett said. A majority of the board can do just about anything with impunity, he said, recommending that ICANN create a "task force" to come up with independent review procedures. Board decisions should include "analytical components" so that the reasoning is clear, and ICANN should have to make proposed contracts available for public comment before they're finalized, he said. Steve Goldstein, the only ICANN voting board member at the meeting, defended the board's actions and spoke to correct what he said were misunderstandings. Some registrars have good arguments for the grace period that enables domain tasting, though it remains a matter of dispute, he said. ICANN's "trial" budget and operational plan for the coming year were the first to be open to public comment and will be "refined" after that, Goldstein said. Several board members are enrolled in spring National Association of Corporate Directors classes for training on corporate governance, he said. -- Greg Piper * * * * * NTIA Acting Administrator Meredith Baker is leaving the agency overseeing ICANN to pursue other opportunities, she told us Thursday. "I will stay on to ensure a smooth transition" with the White House nominee, Baker said, noting she had been thinking about leaving for several months. The White House is expected to name Neil Patel, assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney, to the job, several Hill and industry sources said. Patel did not return a call for comment. Baker joined NTIA in January 2004, and took over for John Kneuer, who was appointed in 2006, when he left in November. -- AV

1 0

Users Issues: New petition calls for open standards in the European Parliament
by Jeffrey A. Williams March 11, 2008

March 11, 2008

All, Mor important users issues in the EU for example seem to be contrary to some of the remarks coming from certain ALAC members of for that matter remarks from certain ICANN Board members as well. Roberto! Frankly, our members are demonstrably in support of the below mentioned and elaborated upon open standards in that they promote openess and transparency as well as aid in accountability. [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ] ++ New petition calls for open standards in the European Parliament http://www.openforumeurope.org/press-room/latest-news/new-petition-calls-fo… The petition can be found here: www.openparliament.eu Brussels 6 March 2008. At a time when the EU Commission investigates the anti-competitive behaviour of a market-dominant player, the European Parliament (EP) still imposes that same specific software choice on both the European Union's citizens and its own MEPs. OpenForum Europe, The European Software Market Association, and the Free Software Foundation Europe today launched a petition to call on the EP to use open standards so that all citizens can participate in the democratic process. Graham Taylor, Chief Executive of OpenForum Europe says: "The benefits of the Internet were achieved from open standards, freedom of access, participation for all, innovation where it really mattered. Not proprietary lock-in and monopoly. Government and Parliament need to show leadership in ensuring full participation for all its citizens. Pieter Hintjens, General Secretary of Esoma explains, "Small businesses are moving to modern open standards like Open Document Format, yet to write to their MEPs they have to switch back to old proprietary formats? The EP should lead the way in open government, starting with open standards for documents and recordings." Ciaran ORiordan, FSFE adds, "If our elected representatives don't like a software package or its terms of use, they should be able to choose another software package. This issue and the promotion of open standards must be tackled together to get past a chicken and egg problem: Not being able to choose your software often means you're stuck with one vendor's proprietary format, and using that proprietary format means you, and everyone you communicate with, is shoe-horned into using the same vendor's software. For FSFE, it is important that MEPs be able to choose Free Software." The signatories are encouraging citizens and other stakeholder groups to publicly support the objectives of the petition by signing up on www.openparliament.eu ++ Background It is the right of all citizens to be able to freely communicate with their elected representatives, and have full and free access to the proceedings of Parliament. In todays electronic world of the internet, email and video streaming, citizens rightly have high expectations on the European Parliament to ensure full participation without technical restriction. Yet it is a fact that the domination of current suppliers, unless challenged, does impose unnecessary restriction, forcing citizens to purchase specific software, maintaining lock-in to that supplier and limiting competition and choice. Openness is all about the freedom to innovate, integrate and participate. For example there are already internationally approved standards for document exchange, supported by a multitude of competitive main stream products - yet these standards are unsupported by the European Parliament, which instead only supports products based on proprietary protocols. Not only does this potentially increase cost, restrict access and impact social inclusion, but it restricts the opportunity to take advantage of new innovation offered by tomorrow's technology. The co-signatories of this Petition call on the European Parliament to open up their IT systems, maximising the use of open standards and ensure full democracy for its citizens. ENDS Issued by Open Forum Europe through Chelgate Ltd. Regards, Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 277k members/stakeholders strong!) "Obedience of the law is the greatest freedom" - Abraham Lincoln "Credit should go with the performance of duty and not with what is very often the accident of glory" - Theodore Roosevelt "If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B; liability depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by P: i.e., whether B is less than PL." United States v. Carroll Towing (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947] =============================================================== Updated 1/26/04 CSO/DIR. Internet Network Eng. SR. Eng. Network data security IDNS. div. of Information Network Eng. INEG. INC. ABA member in good standing member ID 01257402 E-Mail jwkckid1(a)ix.netcom.com My Phone: 214-244-4827

1 0

Report on "OneDay" for ALAC/AtLarge Workshop in New Delhi
by Veronica Cretu March 10, 2008

March 10, 2008

Dear ALAC/AtLarge colleagues! Warmest Greetings from a rainy Moldova! Back in LA meeting ALAC has launched a "OneDay" workshop initiative. "OneDay" initiative is part of the Organizational Development @ ALAC. With the formation of all five RALOs, ALAC/AtLarge Organizational Development represents the single most important parameter when considering the sustainability of any changes that may have been put in place during the process. Because the results of the LA meeting have proven the need to continue the initiative, the second phase of the "OneDay" has been organized on February 10, 2008 in New Delhi. Today, the “OneDay” Workshop team is happy to provide you with a report on that meeting. Millions of thanks for all those who participated in the event and made it happen, and more importantly, to all those who have provided their feedback: comments, suggestions, recommendations on the OneDay in New Delhi. Don’t hesitate to contact us should you have any questions, comments, etc. related to the Report. Wishing you all a great week ahead! On behalf of the OneDay Workshop team, As ever, Veronica Cretu Veronica Cretu President, "CMB" Training Center (www.cmb.md) Phone: 373 22 55 68 64, 27 45 04, Fax: 27 31 96 ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) At Large Advisory Committee Member from Eastern Europe, LA, USA http://www.icann.org/committees/alac/cretu.html

2 1

INVITATION TO COMMENT AT-LARGE ADVISORY COMMITTEE INDEPENDENT REVIEW
by At-Large Staff March 10, 2008

March 10, 2008

Westlake Consulting Limited (http://www.westlakenz.com/) (WCL) has been selected by ICANN's Board of Directors to conduct an independent review of the At-Large Advisory Committee (http://alac.icann.org/) (ALAC). WCL's review team is gathering information from many different sources including a range of people who have an interest, directly or indirectly, in the ALAC. The objectives of the Review are principally: * [To determine] whether the ALAC has a continuing purpose in the ICANN structure; and, * If so, whether any change in structure or operations is desirable to improve its effectiveness. The Review Terms of Reference (http://www.icann.org/reviews/alac/alac-review-final-tor-20jun07.pdf) note that: ³It will be important to consider different perspectives relevant to the ALAC, including the views of individual Internet users, the ALSs, the RALOs, past and current Members of the ALAC, and many others within (and perhaps outside of) the ICANN community.² Accordingly, WCL invites individuals or organisations, who wish to contribute observations or information about any aspect of the role, structure or operation of the ALAC, to email their comments to alacreview(a)westlakenz.com, no later than 18 April 2008. -- Regards, ICANN At-Large Staff email: staff(a)atlarge.icann.org

2 1

Wikileaks Calls For Global Boycott Against eNom
by Jeffrey A. Williams March 10, 2008

March 10, 2008

All my friends, The ALAC may want to pay particular attention here. I hope my hint is taken and taken in the proper light.. This is the kind of thing I and our members have been fearing would happen if ICANN didn't take steps in time to get its Registries and Registrars in line with policing their registrants properly. Frankly I, nor any of our members support censoring of Domain Names entirely for minor mistakes such as Wikileaks has done, however many times they have done so. Their rep., was damaged permanently as was Wikipedia's over a year ago now with constantly posting to their web sites totally inaccurate and often unverified information. Google will be facing same if they don't get their act together as well. Also just as frankly, it seems to me that Wikileaks has a 1st amendment case here if they choose to make the challange. My guess is that they don't have the resources to make that challange or are fearful of the E-Discovery such a challange would no doubt require and produce. One lesson I hope is taken by registrants as well as Registries and Registrars is Dishonesty never pays for long and usually ends up being very very costly indeed! See: The folks at Wikileaks are calling for a http://wikileaks.org/wiki/WIKILEAKS.INFO_censored_by_eNom_and_Demand_Media boycott against eNom, Inc., one of the top internet domain registrars, which WikiLeaks claims is involved in systematic domain censoring. On Feb 28th eNom shut down wikileaks.info, one of the many Wikileaks mirrors held by a volunteer as a side-effect of the court proceedings around wikileaks.org. In addition, eNom was the registrar that shut off access to a Spanish travel agent who showed up on a US Treasury watch list. Wikileaks calls for a 'global boycott of eNom and its parent Demand Media, its owners, executives and their affiliated companies, interests and holdings, to make clear such behavior can and will not be tolerated within the boundaries of the Internet and its global community. Regards, Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 277k members/stakeholders strong!) "Obedience of the law is the greatest freedom" - Abraham Lincoln "Credit should go with the performance of duty and not with what is very often the accident of glory" - Theodore Roosevelt "If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B; liability depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by P: i.e., whether B is less than PL." United States v. Carroll Towing (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947] =============================================================== Updated 1/26/04 CSO/DIR. Internet Network Eng. SR. Eng. Network data security IDNS. div. of Information Network Eng. INEG. INC. ABA member in good standing member ID 01257402 E-Mail jwkckid1(a)ix.netcom.com My Phone: 214-244-4827

1 0

Re: [At-Large] Deep Policy Issues
by Jeffrey A. Williams March 10, 2008

March 10, 2008

JFC and all, JFC Morfin wrote: > At 23:58 09/03/2008, Roberto Gaetano wrote: > >I wonder whether we will see a similar > >situation developing in juridical practices about domain name registries: > >i.e. whether some national laws will develop in a way to provide a different > >set of rules, and maybe attract the business of registries because of that. > > C'est déjà le cas. En fait les lois de beaucoup de pays interdisent > le Whois. Ceci est appliqué par certain ccTLD. Il serait important à > mon avis que l'ICANN se penche sur les disposition de l'OMC sur les > obstacles techniques au commerce (WTO/TBT). Tu n'aurais pas du > laisser Bart et Jaap aller seuls à Genève fin janvier. Tout cela > repousse trop de chose vers ce que je prépare, le retarde, et posera > à la fin des problèmes car trop de choses devront être discutées en > même temps. > Ciao! > jfc English translation for non french speakers: It is already the case. In fact the laws of much of country prohibit the WHOIS. This is applied by certain ccTLD. It would be important in my opinion that the ICANN considers the provision of OMC on the technical obstacles with trade (WTO/TBT). You would not have to leave Bart and Jaap to only go to Geneva at the end of January. All that pushes back too much thing towards what I prepare, delays it, and will pose at the end problems bus too many things will have to be discussed at the same time. > > > Regards, Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 277k members/stakeholders strong!) "Obedience of the law is the greatest freedom" - Abraham Lincoln "Credit should go with the performance of duty and not with what is very often the accident of glory" - Theodore Roosevelt "If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B; liability depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by P: i.e., whether B is less than PL." United States v. Carroll Towing (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947] =============================================================== Updated 1/26/04 CSO/DIR. Internet Network Eng. SR. Eng. Network data security IDNS. div. of Information Network Eng. INEG. INC. ABA member in good standing member ID 01257402 E-Mail jwkckid1(a)ix.netcom.com My Phone: 214-244-4827

1 0

Deep Policy Issues
by Danny Younger March 10, 2008

March 10, 2008

I am reposting the insightful remarks of Bertrand de La Chapelle (Special Envoy for the Information Society, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs -- GAC member) found on the cpsr governance list on the topic of the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) action with regard to the Cuban-themed websites of Steven Marshall -- (note: this topic was first raised in the article "A Wave of the Watch List, and Speech Disappears" by Adam Liptak of the New York Times). Milton, Following your remarks to McTim below, and supposing this indeed is done through the courts, the interesting set of questions here is : 1) Would/should a foreign registrar comply with a court order from the US ? 2) And if it failed to do so, would the court order Verisign to do it (block the domain name) ? 3) Should Verisign do it, does that mean that all .com registrants become indirectly subject to US law, not only in terms of appropriate strings, but also in terms of the very activity they run, even on servers not located on US territory and serving customers outside of the US ? This is a real and useful discussion. Nothing to do with the "oversight of the root" via IANA. It is exposing the core challenge of competing or overlapping jurisdictions and probably the need for some "globally-applicable public policy principles". I believe nobody has the full complete answer. In my personal view, this is an illustration of the mutation of sovereignty, disconnecting it from the sole physical territory and allowing it to expand in a fractal manner on other territories - or conversely, retract - depending on the influence of the corresponding national actors in the digital sphere. And those national actors are not only the governments : the existence of a dominant player in a specific domain (Verisign, but also a Google, YouTube, MySpace or Facebook) does bring the corresponding government a leverage. But it probably also gives it a special responsibility it did not have before. This notion of "fractal sovereignty" is harder to handle than the traditional territory-based one but probably more adapted to our connected world than the notion of strict subsidiarity : the challenge is to manage interdependence and interactions. To enrich the discussion, I'd like to put in perspective here the issue of IDNs. Will the physical location of the future major registries for IDN TLDs (particularly gTLDs if any) give the corresponding national courts a specific authority/legal power on all registrants in those TLDs, even if they are not located in that country and have no business with its citizens ? These are deep policy issues and I'd be interested in comments on those challenges. Because they are challenges for governments too. Best Bertrand ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

7 10

GNSO Solicits Public Comments on Draft Resolution to Curb Domain Tasting
by At-Large Staff March 9, 2008

March 9, 2008

http://www.icann.org/public_comment/#domain-tasting ICANN¹s GNSO Solicits Public Comments on Draft Resolution to Curb Domain Tasting Comment period 7 March 2008 to 28 March 2008 Please submit comments to: <domain-tasting-motion(a)icann.org> Comments may be viewed at: http://forum.icann.org/lists/domain-tasting-motion/ Explanation: The GNSO Council is considering the issue of "domain tasting", a term used to describe the case when someone registers a domain name and then tests to see if the name has sufficient traffic to provide more income than the annual registration fee (usually through pay-per-click advertising). If the name is deemed sufficiently profitable, it is kept. If not, the current "add grace period" (AGP) - where domains can be returned within five days without cost - is used to return the domain at no net cost to the registrant. Recently there has been a significant increase in the number of domains registered and returned within the AGP. ICANN staff prepared an Issues Report in June 2007 http://www.gnso.icann.org/issues/domain-tasting/gnso-domain-tasting-report-1 4jun07.pdf and subsequently a GNSO working group published an Outcomes Report in October 2007. http://www.gnso.icann.org/drafts/gnso-domain-tasting-adhoc-outcomes-report-f inal.pdf The GNSO Council decided on 31 October 2007 to launch a policy development process (PDP) on domain tasting. An Initial Report http://www.gnso.icann.org/issues/domain-tasting/gnso-initial-report-domain-t asting-07jan08.pdf was produced for public comment, outlining the policy development process, possible actions that might be taken, and the arguments put forward for and against such actions. Public comments were incorporated into a draft Final Report (posted 8 February) http://www.gnso.icann.org/drafts/draft-final-report-domain-tasting-08feb08.p df for GNSO Council review and action. Members of the Council subsequently drafted this motion http://gnso.icann.org/issues/domain-tasting/dnt-motion-6mar08.shtml to curb domain tasting. It would prohibit any gTLD operator that has implemented an add grace period from offering a refund for any domain name deleted during the AGP that exceeds 10% of its net new registrations in that month, or fifty domain names, whichever is greater. An exemption may be sought for a particular month, upon the documented showing of extraordinary circumstances, as detailed in the motion. The GNSO Council will consider public comments and constituency impact statements regarding the draft motion and incorporate them into a further draft for Council consideration at its scheduled 17 April meeting. -- Regards, ICANN At-Large Staff email: staff(a)atlarge.icann.org --

1 0

Motion for ALAC board
by Franck Martin March 8, 2008

March 8, 2008

I propose the following resolution for the ALAC board. Resolution: ALAC will request ICANN to create a mailing list reserved to the board members of ALS and only the board members of ALS. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Franck Martin franck.martin(a)gmail.com http://www.peachymango.org/ "Toute connaissance est une réponse à une question" G. Bachelard

18 42

List Posting and Moderation
by Cheryl Langdon-Orr March 8, 2008

March 8, 2008

Just a quick note to remind ALL members of this list that (as previously stated to this list) the ALAC will be discussing (and finalizing mechanisms that the participants of this list have recently called for , discussed / debated and raised (both off and on this list) with their representatives on the ALAC at our next for the next Monthly meeting of the ALAC on 11th of March... https://st.icann.org/alac/index.cgi?11_march_2008 You will find this already on the published AGENDA under Item 6. Under New Business List Posting and Moderation (see ALAC/2007/1/1.Rev9.1 (EN) <https://st.icann.org/page/alac/rules_of_procedure/attachments/2007092411182 3-0-24454/ALAC-2007-1-1.Rev91%20-%20EN.pdf> and AL.ALAC/CC.0308/1/5 Proposal of the Chair on <https://st.icann.org/alac/index.cgi?AL.ALAC%2FCC.0308%2F1%2F5%20Proposal%20 of%20the%20Chair%20on%20Code%20of%20Conduct%20Enforcement> Code of Conduct Enforcement & *please note* this proposal has *not as yet been uploaded to the WIKI* , but will be soon... as I am looking at the logistics of some of the options we have available to us). Meeting participants will also get an alert to this on the Internal list as soon as possible so that they have as much time as possible to consider and prepare for the meeting... Though I suspect most if not All have already formulated their own and collated and collected the views of their regional constituencies... CLO

2 1