[ga] Fallout From An Exchange of Emails with Esther Dyson About ICANN Disenfranchising Internet Users Right to Vote For the ICANN Board Governing the Internet

[cpart@interaccess.com]

Hey everyone, 

1.  NEW TOP LEVEL DOMAINS

Here is a good muck raking article about the hubris at ICANN.  Its an article by Brock N. Meeks (brock.meeks@msnbc.com) at MSNBC. 
http://www.msnbc.com/news/480700.asp?0nm=T12O

We need to continue to encourage journalists to cover ICANN.  You can support Brock, by going to read the article (and maybe send him a thank you email... put "thank you" in the title so can direct the mail into a directory)

Here are some excerpts:

--- "The global land rush for control of new Internet domains that will compete in dot-com space is beginning to take on the familiar stink of the Olympic games site selection scandal. A small cabal of insiders appear to be gaming the selection process that will soon determine who will win the right to control new domains such as .xxx, .kids or .web....."

--- IT ALL STARTS with the controversial organization known as ICANN....

--- What ICANN has mostly done is create controversy with every decision...

--- Truth is, ICANN has manufactured most of its own troubles, starting with a stupefying bent toward secrecy, while pledging to operate in a spirit of consensus and transparency....

--- ICANN’s proceedings and board meetings have only recently been held out for public accountability and scrutiny. And that was a begrudging concession to a ground swell of public criticism.  Then just last week we learn that a crucial ICANN policy committee was created and is meeting secret...

--- One law professor has even stronger words for the ICANN debacle: “In lending ICANN its control” over the domain name space, the Department of Commerce “created a system in which social policy is made not by due process of law but by something that begins to resemble government-sponsored extortion,” writes Michael Froomkin, a law professor at the University of Miami School of Law in a law review article for the Duke Law Journal....

--- The ground rules noted that anyone could submit an application to run a new domain, a potentially lucrative business that can return hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. But the brutal truth is, ICANN didn’t want just anyone to submit a proposal, so they imposed what amounted to a digital poll tax: all applicants had to pony up a non-refundable $50,000 check. Some 47 applications were received, pouring $2.35 million into ICANN’s cash strapped coffers. And none of the applicants is guaranteed it will get to run a new domain...

--- But one group of players has seen to it that they have an inside track in being selected to run one of the new domains. 

--- Members of a newly created company called the Afilias Group have, in one way or another, managed to get their hooks into more than one-third of the domain proposals. Members of Afilias include the current monopoly domain name registry owner, Network Solutions, Inc. 

--- If one of a few new domains goes to "a group of registrars who collectively already have 98 percent of the .com, .net and .org market, one would have to ask, 'why?'

--- Although ICANN says it is looking out for the stability of the Internet... that argument flies with the all the grace of a penguin...

Brock Meeks article is is thorough and appears to be well researched.  He explains how NSI has managed to get its "hooks" into a third of the proposals through a newly created company called the Afilias Group.  He has a lot of backgroud the members of this group.  And some shocking (to me at least) allegations of the machinations going on.  

Again, go read the article, it's good.  I'm adding to my list of reccomended links for the press.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/480700.asp?0nm=T12O

2.  ICANN DEBACLE RESOURCES FOR THE PRESS.  

Here is a collection of resources for anyone who wants to learn more about ICANN vs. Internet Democracy.
http://infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/00/10/02/001002oplivingston.xml (by brian_livingston@infoworld.com) - In my opinion, the best article to date on ICANN's dysfunctional behavior...  
http://www.msnbc.com/news/480700.asp?0nm=T12O  (by Brock N. Meeks brock.meeks@msnbc.com) an critical article about how ICANN has acted in the process for selecting new registrys 
http://www.media-visions.com/icann.htm (Analyzing ICANN - a page with a very good set of links to pages containing well researched and reasoned critical analysis of ICANN)
http://www.ADOR-DOC.ORG/wipoletter.html (you can't understand how outrageous has been  ICANN's behavior with respect to favoring large corporations in domain disputes... unless you read this) 
http://www.news.com/Perspectives/Column/0,176,459,00.html (article by by Brian Livingston of cnet about ICANN bias in domain name arbitration)
http://www.Icannwatch.org (regularly updated website monitoring ICANN activities)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/full_coverage/tech/domain_names_and_registration/ (100s of articles written by reporters who've been covering these issues)
http://www.flywheel.com/ircw/overview.html (an overview of the domain names controversy - starting pre-ICANN with an extensive and thorough  set of related links)
http://www.icann.org  (ICANN's Web Site)  
http://www.ais.org/~ronda/new.papers/gao-icann/DNS-Proposal.txt
http://umcc.ais.org/~ronda/ (background on the development of the Internet and the role of the government)
http://www.domainhandbook.com/toc.html 
http://www.iciiu.org/ (International Congress of Independent Internet Users)
http://www.domainnotes.com/ 
http://www.eff.org/ (electronic Frontier Foundation (the ACLU of the Internet)
http://www.media-visions.com/newdom2b.html (links to government and industry leaders)
http://www.media-visions.com/icann-involved.htm (steps you can take to help this problem)
http://www.civsoc.org (the Civil Society Democracy Project has a good set of links on internet democracy and related current happenings)

3.  PASS THE WORD ON.  

Please pass this email along to anyone who might want to be added to the distribution list.

Curtis Sahakian
1-847-676-2774
cpart@Corporate-Partnering.com
http://www.Corporate-Partnering.com/cpi






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