[ga-full] "Implode like a black hole" (fwd)

["!Dr. Joe Baptista" <baptista@pccf.net>]

http://news.excite.com/news/zd/000405/20/is-icann-the

By Lisa M. Bowman, ZDNet News

   TORONTO -- Critics of the International Corporation for Assigning Names
and Numbers (ICANN) on
   Wednesday called on the board to develop a charter with a bill of rights
that would spell out specifically what the
   board can and cannot do. 

   In one of the few sessions not devoted to privacy at the Computers
Freedom and Privacy 2000 conference here,
   panelists lambasted ICANN -- the non-profit, private body in charge of
doling out domain names and numbers -- for
   its wide-ranging actions so far, actions that include tackling
intellectual property rights and trademark issues. 

   "Our concern is that ICANN could end up making significant content and
policy decisions," said Jerry Berman,
   executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT). For
example, the board is mulling who
   should have access to the Whois database -- the directory of Web site
ownership -- and Congress is working on a
   bill that addresses a ".xxx" top-level domain for porn sites, domains
that ICANN would distribute, said Berman 

   Though ICANN board members have repeatedly protested that they handle
only narrow technical matters, it's been
   impossible for them to avoid sticky political situations surrounding
intellectual property issues as more and more
   money is at stake on the Internet. 

   The Center for Democracy and Technology -- which keeps close tabs on
ICANN -- already has been working on
   convincing the group to limit its charter. Last month the CDT
successfully urged ICANN to elect many of its at-large
   board members directly. Before that, ICANN had favored an elaborate and
confusing process that involved letting
   general members elect a group who would then hand pick the members. 

   Open ICANN meetings applauded To its credit, the panelists pointed out,
ICANN has opened up its meetings,
   which were once held behind closed doors without any public input. 

   Even so, panelist Richard Sexton is worried that ICANN is under the
influence of big business, which he said has
   sent powerful lobbyists to ensure that they would have power over ICANN's
decisions regarding who gets certain
   domain names. Sexton said he isn't optimistic that ICANN will succeed. "I
suspect it's going to implode like a black
   hole," he told the audience. 

   Karl Auerbach, a senior researcher at Cisco Systems Inc. speaking on his
own behalf, criticized the board for not
   acting more quickly to create more top-level domains. Auerbach said the
network has the ability to support millions
   of new top-level domains. He panned ICANN for its plans to create only a
handful. "It's just an invitation for people
   to come and hoard names," he said. 

   The only panelist who was also an ICANN member -- Barcelona-based
attorney Amadeu Abril I Abril -- called in
   via conference call in an attempt to defend some of the board's actions.
"ICANN is what people want it to be," he
   said, prompting the audience to snicker and some panelists to whisper
"what?" under their breaths. 

   Still, he said the process has to start somewhere. "ICANN is a tool. We
can use it to evolve in the direction we
   want." 

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