Re: [ga] Re: Even Handed Application of The Rules (Yes or No? - Weshall see) (was Re: [ga] Posting rights of Jeff Williams suspended for 14 days).

["Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law" <froomkin@law.miami.edu>]

If it's on my homepage, or on ICANNWatch, and not part of ICANN's official
record, ICANN official position is that it doesn't exist.  This is part of
how it claims 'consensus' for its various unpopular actions.

ICANN is an agent of the US federal government.  As such it seems
reasonable to label its acts of silencing commentators as a form of
censorship.  Or, if you prefer, it is a semi-official body with
ever-greater dominance by an international panel of government 'advisors'.
In either formulation, it makes policy, a traditional governmental
function however much dressed up in the rhetoric of private action.

I quite agree that in the grand scheme of things this is nothing like
torturing dissidents, but it's a form of limiting debate nonetheless.

On Wed, 14 May 2003, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:

> On Wed, May 07, 2003 at 11:39:45PM -0700,
>  Karl Auerbach <karl@cavebear.com> wrote 
>  a message of 30 lines which said:
> 
> > I am opposed to any formalized censorship. 
> 
> Suppressing posting rights is not censorship. Censorship is when a
> power (the government, a corporation, the mob) tries to suppress *any*
> speech from an individual or an organization. When you tell someone to
> shut up in a meeting (may be because he talks too much and off-topic),
> it is not censorship, when you actively try to prevent him from
> speaking anywhere, it is censorship.
> 
> People in countries with a long history of freedom of speech speak too
> lightly about censorship.
> 
> > In the kind of warm discussion that arises out of social and political
> > matters (as opposed to the calmer, less emotional discussions that occur
> > in the ietf regarding technical matters)
> 
> Less emotional? I assume that you are actually a member of some IETF
> working groups. If so, you do not have the same experience that I
> have. Read the "namedroppers/DNSext" archives, for instance.
> 
> > Censorship is not foreign to ICANN - ICANN has tried to censor me, for
> > example, by refusing to publish any of my papers on its web site, 
> 
> It is bad policy and it speaks negatively about ICANN but censorship
> is when you cannot even post what you want on your personal home page.
> 
> 
> 
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