Re: [ga] Consumer/Registrant Protection Consitituency

[Alexander Svensson <alexander@svensson.de>]

Hello Kent,

Kent Crispin wrote on 07.08.01, 07:12:15:
>> The problem is the other way
>> around. ICANN itself has set out an agenda which is much more than
>> technical. Why do we have a handful of TLDs?  Technical problems?  Why
>> do we have a UDRP?  Technical issues?   Why do we have anti-privacy
>> policies?  Technical issues?
>
> Sorry, it is purely nonsense to claim that ICANN is setting this agenda.
> Essentially everything significant about ICANN's agenda was set before
> ICANN was established, and ICANN has been held to that agenda fairly
> tightly.

I agree that most of the controversial questions on the 
agenda were there before ICANN. However, the supratechnical 
questions are on the table, and some of them will continue to 
come up. 

> When we do look in detail at what "the power" is, we find that it is in
> fact incredibly constrained by external forces. 

And when we look in detail at the external forces, we find that 
they in turn are constrained by other external forces. Of course
it would be plainly naive to assume that ICANN has unrestrained
power over the Internet or even the DNS. The amount of ICANN's 
power and the number of ICANN's supporters ultimately shows in 
disputes.

> When we look at the "policy issues" we find things important to a 
> vanishingly small fraction of the human race.
> When we look in detail at "the people" who are
> heavily involved we find almost entirely TM interests, domain
> speculators, registry/registrar interests, people fascinated by the idea
> of internet governance in general, and an oddball assortment of people
> who have various personal agendas -- lunatics like me, and paid
> political operators like you.  Despite the best efforts of many
> people, there has never been any serious evidence of a larger body of
> interest.  Domain name policy is, IN FACT, an extremely obscure and
> highly technical topic that puts most people to sleep instantly.

:) I'm wondering which pigeon-hole I fit into.
But I am not so sure about the number of people interested,
since awareness usually comes before interest. ICANN has
been on the main national news program in Germany twice, 
if I recall correctly. And I am not very surprised
about the people heavily involved; take any other topic
which requires some prior knowledge, e.g. public health 
service. We'd find doctors and patients interests, 
insurance companies, manufacturers, lunatics etc. And
I am sure that I could be put to sleep instantly with
a presentation on intricate details of social welfare
legislation. Which doesn't mean that the overall question
is not important.

Best regards,
/// Alexander
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