On May 13, 2017 at 12:28 johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) wrote:
There's a separate question of what to do with the extra application money. Personally, I find it hard to have a lot of sympathy for the dire conditions of speculators and marketers who applied, and I'd treat the extra the same way as the auction money, use it to support projects relevant to ICANN's charitable mission.
Whether I agree or not I'm not sure spending the money before one is sued or similar is a good plan either. One could end up with an insolvent ICANN no matter what our opinions are of the results or how they transpired. That said I would agree that there is a tendency when running any business that "excess" cash tends to get allocated one way or another barring an iron-willed commitment otherwise which is not what I'd expect of an organization structured like ICANN. Even when that allocation, due to lack of competition or superior firepower or even errors in judgement (e.g., lawsuits), is miserable. This is one reason why the idea of a trust or endowment which is structured to make such allocations much more difficult (nothing is impossible) has, I believe, merit. -- -Barry Shein Software Tool & Die | bzs@TheWorld.com | http://www.TheWorld.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: +1 617-STD-WRLD | 800-THE-WRLD The World: Since 1989 | A Public Information Utility | *oo*