Dear colleagues, Following a multi-year analysis of the way ICANN handles its compliance function and being directly involved in the existing process every level I have come to the conclusion that some changes are required if ICANN is to actually be accountable and transparent. There are some fundamental problems within the organization which prevent compliance from operating in a truly independent fashion which serves all parties equally. In short, ICANN compliance has been unable enforce the contract with registrars in specific cases and has been unable to explain why. Testing of the compliance process at every level has revealed technical failures, inconsistencies and lost complaints. Compliance staff failed to recognize violations for an extended period of time and later contradicted their own findings in later statements. The overall issue is we have been regularly assured that Compliance is not only fair but up to the challenges of an expanding Internet. Multiple discoveries call fairness and ability into question. Through cases presented directly by At-Large to Compliance staff we stressed the importance of accepting patterns of abuse and not simply single complaints. While Compliance staff agreed to this on transcript in Singapore, they later rejected the same patterns of abuse in private. One of the more problematic discoveries in this analysis concerns the oversight of compliance itself. As many of you are aware the current CEO moved compliance from under the Legal department to his direct supervision. This was seen by the community as a positive move. However, budget documents show that Compliance actually receives its funding from ICANN's Business division. Additional Compliance funds also still originate with Legal. Having the domain-business division fund Compliance appears to be an inherent conflict of interest and does not engender community trust. While we were told Compliance was being made more independent, this was not the case. It has also been revealed that the head of Compliance is the wife of a business associate of both the CEO and the head of ICANN's Business Division. The main recommendation listed in the proposal is to move Compliance outside the organization. I am also recommending that the community become directly involved in Compliance oversight. I have detailed the history and recommendations here: https://community.icann.org/display/NARALO/NARALO+Reports+on+ICANN+Complianc e+-+January+2015 A formal memo to be forwarded to ALAC is here: https://community.icann.org/download/attachments/51417250/icann_alac_memo_on _compliance.pdf A timeline of critical events is also posted here: https://community.icann.org/download/attachments/51417250/APPROVEDONLINEPHAR MACY_public.pdf I am looking to move this agenda through At-Large starting within NARALO. Please feel free to send any questions or concerns to me and discuss this on the list. -Garth ------------------------------------- Garth Bruen gbruen@knujon.com 617-947-3805 http://www.knujon.com Chair of ICANN At-Large North America (naralo.org) http://www.linkedin.com/pub/4/149/724 Twitter: @Knujon Skype: gobruen "If history is deprived of the Truth, we are left with nothing but an idle, unprofitable tale" -Polybius