Re: [ga] ALAC comments on proposed Bylaws modifications

[Karl Auerbach <karl@CaveBear.com>]

On Wed, 26 Feb 2003, Vittorio Bertola wrote:

> 2/3 of the ALAC are going to be elected as soon as the RALOs will be
> formed.

Which really doesn't mean anything.

Let's compare the paths to power between the trademark folks, who happen 
to have a strong uniformity of interest and thus are readily represented 
by bodies they form, under their own rules, and without having to sign an 
ICANN MOU, against the path to power of a user of the Internet.

Trademark owner's path

    + Join IP constituency:
        - Run largely by self-established rules
        - Members can know one another and can make deals
              outside of public view.
        - Strong unified point of view among members
        - No geographic/residency/citizenship limitations
    + Put persons on council,
    + Those persons get direct vote for two board seats
    + Those persons also get ability to put people on nomcom
      (which dilutes internet users' path, below)

    In other words, trademark people get a nice short path to power.
    In addition, trademark people frequently get another bite at the
    apple because they are also usually business people and thus members
    of yet another "stakeholder" constitutency.

Internet user's path:

    + Join "at large structure"
        - Must exist under ICANN dictated rules
        - Little unified point of view among members
        - Members largely isolated by policies masked as "privacy"
          but really to prevent formation of coalitions and to
          enhance the power of fifth columnists to disrupt.
        - Subject to geographic/residency/citizenship limitations
    + At large structure appoints persons to RALO
        - RALO exists under ICANN dictated rules
        - Little unified point of view among members
        - Subject to geographic/residency/citizenship limitations
    + RALO appoints persons to ALAC
        - ALAC exists under ICANN dictated rules
        - RALO appointees diluted by NOMCOM (insider) appointees
        - Little unified point of view among members
    + ALAC apponts persons to NOMCOM
        - ALAC appointees diluted by appointees from elsewhere
          including bodies for trademark owners, i.e. some
          bodies get a double-dip vote.
    + Nomcom gets to name a portion of the board.

    This is a long, arduous, and tortured path.  The amazing 
    contraptions of Rube Goldberg in the 1930's seem an apt analogy.

As you can see, ICANN has created a favorable path for its "stakeholders"
(and don't forget, those "stakeholder" often are able to take advantage of 
multiple such pathways - trademark owners are almost always also able to 
join business "constituencies" and there is a board seat sitting for 
"academic institutions", which are very often very much aligned with 
businesses and are major owners, and sellers, of intellectual property and 
thus have much in tune with trademark owners.)

But the lowly Internet user gets scrod - the pathway is so long and 
arduous, so controlled by ICANN, and so diluted along the way by interests 
antithetical to the internet user, that the pathway is essentially 
meaningless - there is no real incentive for the internet user to become 
involved.

In addition, the power latent in the at-large, that of forming broad
coalitions and reaching broad compromise on big issues, such as privacy,
is poisoned by the ALAC system of dividing internet users into isolated
bite size chunks - bite size as seen by the relatively unified
"stakeholders"  who, as a general matter, who's business purpose is to
extract money from Internet users and who are thus most frequently take
positions in opposition to those natural to internet users.

As I've mentioned before, the ALAC system bears an uncanny resemblance to
the system of village soviets that formed the basis of the so-called
"democratic"  governments of the old USSR and its satellites.

Yesterday a vote came up on the board to provide funds for the interim
ALAC in Rio.  I voted "yes", to provide those funds.  However, I had
misgivings, having observed the growth of vibrant at-large groups during
the election 2+ years ago despite the apathy-approaching-hostility of
ICANN to such groups, not to mention the non-funding by ICANN to such
groups, and knowing full well that funding leads to dependency.

        --karl--

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