Re: [ga] Individual domain name holders and the DNSO

[Marc Schneiders <marc@venster.nl>]

On Sun, 10 Sep 2000, Kent Crispin wrote:

[...]
> Personally I have always been in favor of an "at-large" constituency, 
> which is open to anyone, rather than an individual domain name holders 
> constituency.  While people who just use domain names without registering 
> them don't have as much an obvious stake, they clearly do have a stake.  
> [The claim that only domain name holders have a stake in domain names 
> is no more meaningful than saying that only home owners have a stake in 
> housing policy.]
[...]

There is some sort of a (political, democratic) principle that those who
pay (a special) tax have a say in how the money is spent. In fact I think
democracy somehow started this way historically.

Domain name owners pay ICANN a tax of $0.33 yearly.

Does this mean others, who merely use domains, should have no say? Of
course not. But those who pay the $0.33 should have an extra say, I would
say.

For analogy: All citizins pay a tax to their District Water Board in the
Netherlands. Everyone wants the dykes high and their feet dry in our low
lands. Those who own land or a house pay an additional tax, for they have
an additional interest in what the board does. And they have an additonal
vote for a reserved number of board members. Last time I looked at it,
large land owners still had more votes than small ones, as they pay more
tax and are bigger stakeholders. 

You would think there would not be much interest in these elections, which
is true most of the time for the "all inhabitants" category. (Now often
delegated to local councils to avoid the high costs of the elections.) At
times there is a very lively campaign among the landowners (farmers), e.g.
when there are plans to merge two Boards, one of which is not as expensive
as the other, because it runs land that is higher above the sea. Obviously
the landowners there do not like to pay for the dykes in the other
District.

I am sure there are studies about this, as at least some of these Boards
predate the American Declaration of Independence. Might be interesting
material for those who discuss the structure of ICANN.

--
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% Marc Schneiders ------- Venster - http://www.venster.nl % 
%* marc@venster.nl - marc@bijt.net - marc@schneiders.org *%
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