[ga] [ga-ext} Models

["William S. Lovell" <wsl@cerebalaw.com>]

. . . and speaking of slapping together an organization, there are four
organizations
or structures to which I belong or in which I participate. One of these
is the National
Writers Union, which has a case before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to
ensure
that publishers cannot spread a writer's work all over CDs and the
Internet without
that writer being compensated.  The second is ASCAP, which looks after
royalty
payments to songwriters, and has just had Lyle Lovett testifying before
Congress.
These two represent organizations that have been able to take up very
complex
issues and work loads and carry out their functions successfully,
without strife.

The next one is the U. S. Patent Office, which also floats balloons --
with respect to
patent examining processes -- by way of Requests for Comment. The
comments so
received are (a) summarized; (b) the action taken (or not) is indicated;
and (c) the
reasons why that action was or was not taken are given.  All of this is
spread out in
the Federal Register for all the world to see.

The last is the Patent Cooperation Treaty, through which one can write a
single
patent application and have it end up in countries all over the world.
The reason
that works is because of the word "treaty": the relevant countries have
all signed
on and agreed to follow the procedures, the applicants pay such and such
fees,
this or that language will be used, and so on.

ICANN does not exhibit the quality of acceptance that characterizes the
National
Writers Union and ASCAP (BMI would be another good example in the music
business); it does not publicize its decision making process; and it has
for its authority
to establish norms all over the world only a few pieces of paper, the
legality of which
is virtually nil.  The rest of the world was never really asked, and the
recent cosmetic
steps of ensuring geographically distributed representation and the like
simply do not
make up the difference, when the horse is already out of the barn.
White and green
papers from the U. S. Government cannot, in any way, convey to ICANN the
authority
to dictate to netizens all over the world, since that is authority that
the U. S. does not
have.

Square one, folks!  (I'd start with a Treaty Working Group, while also
continuing the
current process of internal re-organization, e.g., get names for this
bunch or that office
that will properly convey the function, construct a better
organizational chart, etc., etc.,
all centered on the concept of bottom up governance -- they got that
part right.)

Bill Lovell

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