[Re: [council] Finalization of "A Unique, Authoritative Root for theDNS"]

[Louis Touton <touton@icann.org>]

To the Names Council:

In an effort to clarify matters:

   1.  The policies that ICANN follows are not limited to those adopted
by the ICANN Board since ICANN was created.  They also include the
policies previously in place, subject of course to revision through the
community-based ICANN processes.

   2.  At its 2 June 2001 meeting, the Names Council passed the
following resolution:  "The Names Council considers that multiple roots
are outside the scope of the ICANN DNSO."  Milton Mueller voted for that
resolution.

   3.  Two days later, at its 4 June 2001 meeting, the ICANN Board of 
Directors discussed the 28 May discussion draft of "A Unique,
Authoritative Root for the DNS."  The full minutes are not yet
completed, but a recording of the proceedings is available though
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/stockholm/archive/agenda-bod-060401.html>,
as are the scribe's notes.  As the scribe reports, the Board reached
consensus that the discussion draft should be revised based on comments
and posted in final.

   4.  Individual directors of ICANN have an important role, when acting
in conjunction with the other Board members, in adoption of new and
changed ICANN policies.  Individual directors do not speak on behalf of
ICANN, however, except where they have been authorized to do so under
the authority of the Board.  The Board has elected Stuart Lynn as
ICANN's President and Chief Executive Officer, "in charge of all of its
activities and business," and as such he is authorized to speak for
ICANN.  As Dr. Lynn stated in presenting the finalized document:

   "Based on those comments, I have finalized the document. This final
    version has been posted as the third member (ICP-3) of the Internet
    Coordination Policy series.

   "Many members of the community informed me that they felt the
    document is fundamentally correct and applauded it as a faithful and
    well-documented statement of the long-standing policies underlying
    the principle of a single, authoritative root capable of preserving
    a robust, unique naming system for Internet users worldwide. Many 
    also provided me with constructive suggestions for improvement. 
    Helpful suggestions also came from some of those who were critical
    of the document. 

   "Some of the latter raised the objection that the document is
    creating new policy without going through proper process. As the
    discussion draft pointed out, however, it did not create new policy, 
    but was carefully limited to articulating existing policy. The
    creation of new policies implicates ICANN's community-based
    consensus-development processes, but until those processes achieve
    new policies the pre-existing policies (whether developed through 
    previous ICANN processes or received by ICANN at its creation)
    should be evenhandedly followed. 

   "In evaluating the document, the essential focus should be on what
    policies ICANN has developed or received, rather than what policies 
    one wishes were in place. This essential enquiry depends heavily on
    documentation of past statements and actions; for this reason the
    discussion draft undertook a careful review of these and, in the
    final version, I have added some additional citations that were 
    suggested in the ensuing discussion. Although some of the critical 
    comments had very thoughtful statements about what policy should be, 
    they lacked specific documentation that the established policy
    differs from that stated in the discussion draft."

Best regards,

Louis Touton
ICANN Vice-President and General Counsel 


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [council] Finalization of "A Unique, Authoritative Root for
theDNS"
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 08:56:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: Karl Auerbach <karl@cavebear.com>
Reply-To: Karl Auerbach <karl@cavebear.com>
To: Milton Mueller <Mueller@syr.edu>
CC: <council@dnso.org>, <owner-council@dnso.org>


On Mon, 9 Jul 2001, Joe Sims wrote:

> Milton, not only are your views minority, but your characterizations and
> facts are wrong.   As Stuart described in detail in the original draft, and
> at the public forum meeting in Stockholm, this is a statement of existing
> policy, not an attempt to change policy or create new policy.

Milton - You ought to save the message from which the above quote was
obtained; it is a first-class example of Orwellian Newspeak.

The facts are these:

The Board of Directors of ICANN has never adopted any policy on the
matters discussed in the draft.

Neither has the DNSO (which happens to be the forum designated by the
by-laws as the focal point for DNS policy.)

So it is not correct say that it is "a statement of existing policy" of
ICANN.

In Stockholm there was a bit of chat about Stuart Lynn's document.

The chat was civil and friendly.

But that chat should not be taken as implying agreement on the
underlying topic.

As events transpired in Stockholm, the question did not rise to to the
level of a properly posted resolution, much less one that was voted upon
by the Board, and much much less one that was approved by the Board of
Directors.

> In addition, the Board in Stockholm authorized Stuart to finalize and
> publish this document as a statement of existing policy; perhaps you
> were out of the room.

If the Board of Directors did this, then I, as a member of that Board,
must have also been out of the room.

And the person taking the minutes must have also been absent -- There is
nothing in the minutes about any board decision to elevate Stuart's
document to a policy statement.

So it is incorrect to say that "the Board in Stockholm authorized"
anybody to do anything with this document.

By-the-way, Joe Sims does not speak for ICANN.

		--karl--