[ga] ICANN benefits

[Dave Crocker <dhc2@dcrocker.net>]

At 01:50 PM 4/6/2001, Kristy McKee wrote:
>The Internet worked better when there was a monopoly.  The rules were 
>simple:  first come first serve.  Problems were easily resolved over 
>trademark and copyright issues within the courts, etc.  I think ICANN is 
>several steps backwards.


Not only are you wrong, but you are completely wrong.  And unfortunately 
this is the sort of thread that gets in the way of looking at substantial 
criticism, since we must debate basic matters of fact rather than 
significant opportunities for improvement.

NSI had a long and painful history of very poor operations and very 
capricious decision-making.  First come, first serve was the rule, except 
when NSI decided it wasn't.  Some examples are being cited in this thread, 
but it was a massive and well-documented problem.  Sorry you seem unaware 
of it.

Trademark conflicts were ambiguous and expensive.  In fact, NSI gave 
trademark holders much more power than they have in law.  Now we have the 
UDRP and things are vastly more straight-forward and vastly cheaper.

A registration cost US$35/year.  Administrative interactions were 
impressively painful and frustrating.  Now you can get a domain for about 
US$12, with many sources of easy administrative interaction.

So, things are cheaper, easier, more consistent and more reliable.

Definitely a step backward.


At 03:34 PM 4/6/2001, Kristy McKee wrote:
>Thank you Jeff for stating more clearly.

It's too bad that "clearly" has nothing to do with "correctly", since very 
assertion in the list is incorrect.

>At 03:13 PM 4/6/2001 -0700, Jeff Williams wrote:
>>1.) Domain Names have been relegated or equated directly to Trademarks.

THis pre-dates ICANN.  ICANN instituted the UDRP and that actually gives 
trademark more power than they had under the horrible, earlier NSI policy.


>>2.) Registration policy for Domain names has become a murky proposition 
>>and overly restrictive.

Vastly more explicit and consistent than before ICANN.


>>3.) No longer is there a standardized Whois.

First the design choices you are probably commenting on were made by NSI, 
not ICANN.  ICANN had no control over NSI's choice, in spite of warnings 
from the technical community.

Second, Whois was broken before that, by the RIRs.  Nothing to do with NSI 
or ICANN.


>>4.) Privacy has been trampled upon directly.

ICANN has not affected this issue, with respect to domain name.s.


>>5.) Registry security has gotten worse and this is escalating as a result of
>>       lack of Registrants to be able to adequately exercise their 
>> privacy rights.

Either this is a repetition of point 4 or it is unclear what the heck it is 
referring to.


>>6.) the UDRP has been a terribly destructive tool against small
>>      ecommerce business.

Less destructive than the mechanisms that were in place beforehand.


>>7.) Inconsistency in standardization practice and policy.

Less inconsistent than what was in place before.

d/

----------
Dave Crocker   <mailto:dcrocker@brandenburg.com>
Brandenburg InternetWorking   <http://www.brandenburg.com>
tel: +1.408.246.8253;   fax: +1.408.273.6464

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