[ga] The .info "abomination" - questions still unanswered
Title: Help As well as the case of DomainBank and the ineligible submissions they made
to Afilias (for $15000) there were many other cases of registrar and registry
misconduct. For over 250 days Dan Halloran has hidden away and refused to
respond on any of these or on the role of ICANN in relationship to its own
Agreements, its accreditation of registrars, and its duty to oversee the fair
distribution of the DNS to the general public.
For a detailed exposee of some of the matters of great concern (or as an
introduction to the scope and scale of the abuse by some registrars and Afilias
Board members in the .info roll-out) go to:
I would like to see a detailed investigation of these serious
allegations.
I also await the Registry Evaluation Reports which Afilias were obliged to
submit under Appendix U of their ICANN-Registry Agreement.
These Registry Reports should have provided vital data for the NewTLD
Evaluation Process. Instead, they have never materialised. The Appendix U stated
clearly that nearly all of these report details could be published by ICANN. The
Reports were due in mostly 6 months ago, and in some cases 9 months ago.
I have repeatedly asked Stuart Lynn to publish these Registry Reports. I
asked him in May. I asked him in the Summer. I asked him in the Autumn. It is
now 2003.
He says, "ICANN has been busy and hasn't had time to put them online."
Sorry, but copy-paste-FTP, and they could be up in half an hour or less. My 12
year old daughter runs her own website - she'll do it for you if you like!
But more seriously: how can the various ICANN constituencies seriously
engage in an informed participation, if central data is withheld? And isn't the
Evaluation of the NewTLDs an important matter?
There has been no attempt to defend or account for the abuse of process,
and failure of process, that accompanied the .info roll-out. No accountability.
No recognition that people suffered loss. No apology. Not even a response to
many of these concerns (example: over 250 days since some of these concerns were
expressed to Dan Halloran requesting a response and action. Outcome: total
silence. Not even the courtesy of an acknowledgement, even when the mail was
posted on IcannWatch, posted on the GA list, and re-posted to him several
times.)
In the context of such lack of responsiveness and accountability, it is
small wonder that many people are dismayed that the ICANN Board has chosen to
EXPEL the democratically-elected representatives of the At Large (User)
community from the Board Room.
Many questions are still unanswered.
Richard Henderson
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