On 1/28/13 3:20 PM, Thomas Lowenhaupt wrote:
"it is hard to imagine an objection that could avoid forcing ICANN to get involved in ..."
Tom, The imagination of your correspondent, whom you quoted above, is more creative than necessary. The issue before the Corporation is whether the proposed contracting party accepts the terms and conditions of the tendered contract. Had the offer been for "tibet", made by the executive branch of government in Beijing, to be operated by a for-profit corporation located in Hong Kong, with an intentionally fictive promise to involve the Tibetan people through their legislative and non-governmental bodies in some central aspect of the financing, operation, and policy development of the ".tibet" registry, it would be a difference without distinction from an offer for "city", made by a municipal executive alone, to be operated by a for-profit corporation located elsewhere, with the effectively fictive promise to involve the residents of the municipality through their legislative and non-governmental bodies in some central aspect of the financing, operation, and policy development of the ".city" registry. The Corporation doesn't need to "get involved in" the politics of anything. It must decide whether or not to take notice of material misrepresentation by applicants, and in the larger scope, accept or decline the liability to the Corporation to any party if it elects to ignore material misrepresentations by applicants as a matter of policy. The Corporation also must decide whether or not the protections for subordinate political and non-political geographical identifiers, extended from the protections offered for the Capital cities of countries and territories associated with iso3166-1 delegated code points makes the applicants for these subordinate political and non-political geographical identifiers sovereigns, with the same unilateral powers (in effect, vacating all contractual obligations but allowing "memoranda of understanding") as the current GAC member states. I appreciate that your interest may be for a particular outcome of a particular application. I think the issue is vastly larger than one application, creating both arbitrary government power where none currently exists, and making contracting with any public entity exercising this extended protection for national capitals vastly more difficult than anyone, in the GAC or the GNSO, ever intended at any time in the past five years of new gTLD policy development. I remain of the view that if the advice responsibilities created in the Corporation bylaws relative to an At Large body and the public interest are to be observed, that the advice must be offered to the Board through the available means, here the objection process. Eric