Re: [ga] Mr. Qaddafi Salutes Verisign

[Joanna Lane <jo-uk@rcn.com>]

on 11/14/01 11:46 PM, Andy Gardner at andy@navigator.co.nz wrote:

> At 3:59 PM +1300 15/11/01, Joop Teernstra wrote:
>> At 21:41 14/11/01 -0400, Joanna Lane wrote:
>> 
>>> This kind of input on the list is very welcome. I'm compiling a list of
>>> relevant sites to forward to the BoD for attention. More please.
>> 
>> For the BoD's attention?
>> (mission creep anyone?)
>> 
>> Isn't this a strictly US law enforcement issue?
> 
> Ah, but it'd be a great bit of flag-waving PR for ICANN.
> 
> Don't worry about NAF completely ignoring the UDRP rules.
> 
> Don't worry about Registrars holding names to ransom in an attempt to
> maintain market share.
> 
> Don't worry about reversing our mandate and handing Verisign back its
> stranglehold.
> 
> Nah. Write those problems out of our contracts. Not ICANN's responsibility.
> 
> But hey! Yeah! This'll give us some brownie points with Joe Average US
> Citizen!
> 
> We'll be heroes!
> 
> Barf.

I wouldn't make the mistake of thinking ICANN has jumped all over this as
part of their flag waving session. On the contrary, it has been trying to
avoid the issue. The responses both in Lynn's press conference on Thursday
last week and in Tuesday's session at MdR were somewhat flippant to say the
least, not only attempting to sidestep the issue, but also ridiculing the
questions. I guess you're not in New York, or you would not be so quick to
dismiss the act of helping terrorist nations to use the DNS to broadcast
live TV programmes as relatively unimportant. There is nothing heroic about
any of this.  

I fully appreciate that this is a difficult topic because it has freedom of
speech implications, but we don't have much of a choice. There are people
trying to kill us and the first line of defense for the internet community
is to stop Registrars selling them Domain Names. There's very little point
in the government asking the TV networks like CNN to stop transmitting live
video from Al Jazeera because they may contain embedded messages for
terrorist cells in the US, if all the time, any number of websites are
streaming the same stuff over the net.

The other issues you mention are important to me also, but the failure of
the internet industry as a whole to address this issue can only add to the
possibility of more catastrophic loss of life, whereas the others cannot.

For a start, what would it take to run a spider over the WHOIS databases and
identify all the domain names registered to embargoed countries?

Regards,
Joanna


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