[ga] Re: Policy Post 7.03: ICANN Meets in Melbourne

["Patrick Corliss" <patrick@quad.net.au>]

On Thurs, March 15, 2001 6:33 AM (my local time)
CDT Policy Post <info@cdt.org> wrote:
Subject: Policy Post 7.03: ICANN Meets in Melbourne, Considers Public Voice and
New Contracts

CDT POLICY POST Volume 7, Number 3, March 14, 2001

A BRIEFING ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES AFFECTING CIVIL LIBERTIES ONLINE
from
THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY

CONTENTS:
(1) SEARCH CONTINUES FOR MEANINGFUL PUBLIC ROLE IN DOMAIN NAME MANAGEMENT
(2) BOARD TO CONSIDER NEW REGISTRY CONTRACTS, POSSIBLE ".ORG" RESTRICTIONS
(3) DISCUSSIONS ON PRIVACY, NEW TOP LEVEL DOMAINS

------------------------------------------------------------

(1) SEARCH CONTINUES FOR MEANINGFUL PUBLIC ROLE IN DOMAIN NAME MANAGEMENT

How can Internet users -- including individuals and small organizations --
have a say in the management of the Internet? Will the Internet's coming
of age as a commercial medium give rise to gatekeepers unresponsive to the
public interest?

The critical challenge of representing the public's voice in Internet
management is posed most immediately today by ICANN, the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organization that manages
domain names and addressing. Even such technical decisions can have
far-reaching policy implications for free speech and privacy on the
Internet.

This broad issue of the public interest in Internet management has led to
CDT's ongoing participation in ICANN, which concluded its quarterly meeting
early this week in Melbourne, Australia. Major topics of discussion at this
latest meeting included the debate over public participation in ICANN's
board, new proposals for management of the .com/.org/.net domains, and a
range of other issues.

As part of an ongoing effort to study user participation in Internet
management, CDT and a group of international researchers hosted a workshop
in Melbourne on "The Future of the At-Large Membership & Public
Participation in ICANN."

The workshop was convened by the NGO and Academic ICANN Study (NAIS), an
ad hoc collaboration of nine research and advocacy groups from around the
world, including CDT. The workshop discussed a critical debate at ICANN:
The "At-Large" membership and elections for ICANN Directors that many view
as an essential form of public participation in ICANN. NAIS is undertaking
a far-reaching study of public participation in ICANN, and will be making
recommendations regarding the future of ICANN's "At-Large" elections.

More information about the NAIS project is available at:
http://www.naisproject.org/

Parallel to the NAIS effort, ICANN has appointed its own Study Committee
to review the participation of the Internet community "At Large" in ICANN's
decisions. On March 13, the ICANN Board of Directors appointed six new
members to its official effort.

While there has been criticism that the nine-member Study Committee includes
too few advocates for public representation, members of the Committee have
made clear that they intend to rely significantly on input from the Internet
community in developing their recommendations. Several groups, including the
NAIS team, have already announced their intention to provide such input to
the Committee.

The terms of the Study Committee's work include a controversial "clean
sheet" examination of public participation in ICANN -- thus re-opening the
concept of including users in ICANN's decision-making. While such a broad
scope gives the Study Committee flexibility to explore the rationale for
public participation, it also requires advocates for public participation
in ICANN to defend and define that interest vigorously.

In response to a letter from the NAIS group earlier this year, the At Large
Study Committee has released a limited set of aggregate data about last
October's At-Large election. While the data currently available is
inadequate for a rigorous study of the election, CDT views it as a step in
the right direction and hopes that the Study Committee will make further
progress in the near future.

Information about the At-Large Study Committee, including biographies of
its members and copies of the election data already made public, is
available at: http://www.atlargestudy.org/

------------------------------------------------------------

(2) BOARD TO CONSIDER NEW REGISTRY CONTRACTS, POSSIBLE ".ORG" RESTRICTIONS

Opening what could be a contentious debate, the ICANN Board discussed, but
did not take final action, on a proposal to change ICANN's contracts with
VeriSign, the company that manages the master list 'registry' of domain name
registrations for the ".com," ".net," and ".org" top-level domains. Among
other things, the proposal would require Verisign to divest the .net and
.org registries sooner than otherwise expected but give the company a
greater likelihood of retaining the .com registry in the future.

One feature of the new agreements would transfer control of the ".org"
domain to a "sponsoring organization representing non-commercial
organizations." ".org," like ".net" and ".com," is currently open to any
individual, corporation or organization. Under the new proposal, ".org"
could become a closed registry "operated by and for non-profit
organizations." This raises difficult questions: What global definition of
"non-profit" would be imposed on new .org registrants? What organization
would decide and enforce such a policy? CDT fears that this proposal could
ultimately do more harm than good to free expression on the Internet.

One of the Internet's most important features is the absence of gatekeepers
with power to unjustly restrict online speech. Cheap, unfettered access to
domain names empowers Internet users to establish online identities free
from authoritarian interference. A decision by ICANN, however, to require
domain name registrants to prove their standing as non-profit organizations
could deny future registrants access to one of the Internet's longest
standing expressive spaces.

As a rule, CDT believes that unrestricted domain name spaces should play an
important role in the future structure of the DNS. Since restricted spaces
grant certain organizations authority to make binding decisions about who
may or may not speak in a given online space, they are generally
inconsistent with the basic values of openness that have promoted innovation
and expression online. CDT hopes that ICANN will keep this tension in mind
as it moves forward with negotiations for both present and future top-level
domains.

The new contracts sparked intense debate in Melbourne, with comments noting
both benefits -- such as the early recompetition of the .org and .net
spaces -- as well as potential concerns about competition and the process
and speed of the decision. While the Board postponed making a final
decision, existing agreements require a decision by mid-April. In all
likelihood, the ultimate decision will be made on a non-public ICANN Board
teleconference in early April.

A description of the proposed changes is available at:
http://www.icann.org/melbourne/proposed-verisign-agreements-topic.htm

------------------------------------------------------------

(3) DISCUSSIONS ON PRIVACY, NEW TOP LEVEL DOMAINS

Another pressing issue facing ICANN is the status of the publicly-accessible
databases (so-called "WHOIS" data) of domain name owners' personal or
corporate information. ICANN's contracts with the companies that register
domain names for Internet users obligate the companies to provide free
public access to the technical, administrative, and billing contacts
associated with any domain name in ".com," ".net," and ".org." Such data is
frequently used for technical maintenance of the network, law enforcement,
and other purposes, but the freedom of its availability raises privacy
questions when individuals find their home addresses, e-mail addresses and
phone numbers used inappropriately. ICANN has established a WHOIS Committee
but the absence of a well-defined user advocate makes it likely that broader
policy issues regarding WHOIS will need to be worked out in another forum.
CDT remains confident that processes can be put in place that provide needed
access while preserving individual privacy.

Information on the .com/.net/.org WHOIS Committee is available at:
http://www.icann.org/committees/whois/

The ICANN Board also discussed the state of negotiations between ICANN and
the companies chosen in November 2000 to operate new global top-level
domains (gTLDs) on the Internet. Four of seven negotiations for the new
gTLDs are nearing completion and could begin accepting registrations
relatively soon. Of these four new names -- .pro, .name, .info, and .biz --
only ".info" will be completely unrestricted. Draft versions of the
necessary contracts were presented to the Board, although significant
appendices remain to be released. The Board voted to authorize the ICANN
staff to finalize negotiations and present contracts that would be adopted
absent any further objection from Directors.

Agendas from the Board meeting and public comment forum, with links to the
notes of the real-time scribe and copies of relevant documents, are
available at:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/melbourne/archive/index.html

CDT's page on domain name issues is http://www.cdt.org/dns/

------------------------------------------------------------

Detailed information about online civil liberties issues may be found at
http://www.cdt.org/.

This document may be redistributed freely in full or linked to
http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_7.03.shtml.

Excerpts may be re-posted with prior permission of ari@cdt.org

Policy Post 7.03 Copyright 2001 Center for Democracy and Technology

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