On 21/03/07, Wendy Seltzer <wendy@seltzer.com> wrote:

Nick Ashton-Hart wrote:
>
> It is important to say, though, that the ALAC's admission of applicants and
> the criteria which it uses to decide admission actually do not have
> anything
> to do with NCUC or any other constituency - and vice versa. If they were
> meant to do so the Bylaws would provide for that to be the case, and
> they do
> not. As has been pointed out, those who qualify for membership in both are
> entirely welcome at present to join them both if they wish to do so so - as
> a result of which there cannot be any competition for members. That would
> only be possible if membership in one constituency precluded membership in
> the other.

That may be true in the abstract, but as the NCUC is a member-supported
constituency, while the ALAC is ICANN-supported, non-commercial
organizations offered a choice between the two might incorrectly choose
ALAC (incorrectly because they'd then get no path to GNSO votes), which
is a real and valid concern of NCUC. Even if the bylaws don't
explicitly provide for the situation, I think we have an independent
obligation to Internet users not to further weaken the voting
non-commercial civil society component of ICANN.

--Wendy

--
Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@seltzer.org
phone: 718.780.7961 // fax: 718.780.0394 // cell: 914.374.0613
Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html
http://www.chillingeffects.org/