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