When's Payback Time? (was Is ICANN Bankrupt?)

[usdh@smtp1.ncal.verio.com (steve)]

TO: Esther Dyson, Chair ICANN, & Board Members

cc: Mike Roberts, President and CEO, ICANN
Jay Fenello, ORSC representative

RE: When is Payback Time? or Is ICANN Bankrupt (Financially)?

Dear Esther, Mike, and Board Members,
        As the barriers keep being raised (the Registrar Accreditation
Guidelines), and as financial pressure is added by IANA/ICANN monopoly
supporters, like MCI's Vint Cerf, who pleads for support for donations to
ICANN continued corporate welfare, questions are raised which need to be
answered.
        In Mr. Cerf's letter to the ISOC-Adisory-Council, he mentions that
a few companies have committed $50,000 and $25,000 increments, but that
more money ($1-$2 million) is needed.  I would like to know specifically
what offer is being made by ICANN to stimulate companies to part with $1-2
million of shareholders' revenue?  Why would companies do it otherwise?
What do they hope to gain from it?   What is a company's incentive to
participate?  What's the Payback?  When is Payback Time? Could it be
anything related to the data-networking potential of being involved with a
monopoly which allocates domain name inventory from a scarce supply?
        In the case of CommerceNet's $25-$50,000 fees, companies who paid
the "barrier to entry" fees were allowed to sit at the table carve up the
pie called "the future commercial Internet" and become distributors of
CommerceNet products.  Unfortunately, CommerceNet's envisioned products
were brought to market by a competitor (Mosaic Communications, now
Netscape) which didn't have a high barrier to entry.  Mr. Cerf's plea,
below, is reminiscent of CommerceNet, except there is no obvious incentive,
but there has to be an incentive. Surely, companies functioning in a
competitive arena are not going to write checks in that amount purely for
the "good of the community".  There has to be a hook.  What is their
benefit?
        Mr. Cerf writes, "ICANN needs your support now just to be able to
operate in the context of
such well-funded constituents" (as NSI).  He writes, "As a non-profit,
ICANN does not have access to capital funding of this kind," (...because it
operates as a front organization for economic monopolies whose sole value
is their control of domain name inventory, worldwide.  ICANN, as such, is a
syndicate "boss" by another name, which controls the allocation of
competition-free resources to sovereign nation-states (ccTLDs, linked to
the GAC), and to one supranational domain-name inventory supplier, NSI,
which just sold $700 million worth of shares on the secondary offering
market.)
        "I have copied Mike Nelson, who is managing a funding campaign for
the Global Internet Project," (...which has been funneling the financing to
ICANN like a loan shark who knows that favors now demand favors later, when
th big payback-time arrives.)
        Vint writes, "There is nothing more vital than to provide support
for ICANN in this fluid period of formation." (...because what's been
designed is the perfect economic monolith, a monopoly of monopolies,
accountable to nobody, taxing of everybody, and if you help us now, we'll
make sure that you are remembered at Payback Time.)  "Your support is very
much appreciated."

Note: () Items in parenthesis were embellishments discerned by "reading
between the lines" designed to make a compelling point that the only way to
create a competitive marketplace from the ruins of a Market Structure
Defect which was "coded" into the system by the management in charge of the
DNS implementation.

        One cannot separate ICANN's proposed development of the economic
system called "The NSI-Registrar Relationships" (the basis for the
Accreditation Guidelines) from ICANN's funding. It can be proven by anyone
trained in basic economics that ICANN's plan is to create something that is
NOT competitive, but merely an attempt at restructured monopolization, a
re-slicing of the revenue pie.
        ICANN's start-up funding process, led by supporters like Mr. Cerf,
creates future "Paybacks", which is potentially ICANN's potential
equivalent to racketeering paybacks, with virtual cement shoes applied to
those who do not fit the role of supporter.   Because of the requirements
of shareholders to demand a return on their capital investments, the money
that Mr. Cerf is imploring company representatives to depart to ICANN, for
their shareholders' benefit, *requires* a return, otherwise, the executives
that authorize the payments are not acting in the best interest of their
shareholders.
        Since companies like MCI, IBM, D&B, Bull, Telstra, and other
"supporters" of the ICANN process, have massive cash flow, large lobbying
budgets, and are significant contributors to political campaigns, on behalf
of their shareholders, their executive leadership is required, by their
fiduciary roles, to act in the best interests of shareholders' interests.
        Presumably, when Mr. Cerf makes his plea, he is doing so to
representatives of other companies' shareholder interests, whose decisions
to invest $25,000 and $50,000, and more, require that they receive a Return
on Investment (ROI).
        Inquiring minds what to know, "When is Payback Time?" and "What's
the currency being used to Pay the Supporters Back?"  Is it the continued
maintenance of the economic monolith called the mandated NSI-Registrar
relationship?  If so, the donations being solicited by Vint Cerf, below,
constitute some of the clearest evidence yet of a massive and systemic
violation of racketeering statutes (RICO) by ICANN and its financial
supporters.  Why?  Such contributions actually support the
institutionalized exclusion of increases in product inventory (SLD.TLD
domain names) provided by innovative companies like Internet .A-.Z Name
Registry and others, damaging such companies which are in the business of
innovatively creating new product and increasing the supply of domain name
inventory.
        Please respond in detail with how you plan to decouple the implied
Return on Investment (ROI) demanded by company shareholders of companies
which are present and future financial supporters to ICANN. ICANN's future
agenda, knowing human nature, has already been compromised by the
"donations" of large companies, and stands to be a much greater risk of
complete corruption, the sort of corruption that makes the International
Olympic Committee's (IOC) Paybacks-in-Exchange-for Favors seem miniscule.
        ICANN leadership, should be required, by law or by Charter, or by
some form of system of values, to be above the need to make decisions to
please the supporters, at the expense of a more richly competitive DNS
marketplace, and a greater supply of SLD.TLD domain name inventory.
        What's your detailed plan to change course and implement a
corruption-free, payback-free, racketeering-free system which provides
lower barriers to entry to innovators and more services to consumers?

Sincerely,

Steve

Stephen J. Page, Internet .A-.Z Name Registry
An Competitive System and Alternative Source of Domain Name Inventory
T: 9215-454-8624
email: usdh@ccnet.com




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Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999 17:49:57 -0500
To: list@ifwp.org
From: Jay Fenello <Jay@Iperdome.com>
Subject: [IFWP] Is ICANN (Financially ;-) Bankrupt?
Cc: domain-policy@open-rsc.org
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FYI:


> From: vinton g. cerf [SMTP:vcerf@MCI.NET]
> Sent: Friday, February 12, 1999 6:18 AM
> To:   ISOC-ADVISORY-COUNCIL@listserv.isoc.org
> Subject:      Funding ICANN - IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ
> Importance:   High
>
> To: all ISOC Advisory Council Members
> Subject: Funding ICANN
> From: Vint Cerf, Chairman of the Board, ISOC
>
>
> It is now more important than ever before to provide funding for
> the newly-created Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
> (ICANN).
> The organization is in operation, it has an interim board of directors
> chaired by Esther Dyson and an interim CEO, Mike Roberts.
>
> The organization has raised a modest amount of funding thus far, in the
> $250,000 range, but it needs at least $1,000,000 and perhaps as much as
> twice that, before it can establish a funding mechanisms by way of the
> domain name registrars and internet address assignment organizations.
>
> A number of companies have provided funds in modest amounts of $25,000 to
> $50,000 each. Contributions in any amount are, of course, welcomed, but
> plainly the financial support of all of us who benefit from the orderly
> management of these functions will be needed in this interim period while
> regular funding mechanisms are worked out.
>
> The need is very great. Some organizations over which ICANN has cognizance
> are extremely well-funded. One domain name registrar has just gone into
> the capital markets to obtain a reported $700M in a secondary stock
> offering.
>
> ICANN needs your support now just to be able to operate in the context of
> such
> well-funded constituents. As a non-profit, ICANN does not have access to
> capital funding of this kind.
>
> I have copied Mike Nelson, who is managing a funding campaign for the
> Global Internet Project.
>
> I have also copied Mike (Roberts), the interim CEO
> of ICANN. Mike, can you do two things for us:
>
> 1. confirm or revise the information on where to wire funds or to send
>    contributions
>
> 2. provide a list of companies from whom support has been obtained
> (assuming
>    they have not requested anonymity) so that Internet Society Advisory
>    Council members will know whether their companies have already made
> such
>    a contribution.
>
> There is nothing more vital than to provide support for ICANN in this
> fluid period of formation. Your support is very much appreciated.
>
> Vint Cerf
>
>
> Account information for contributions to ICANN:
>
> Account number 09141-04900
> Wire transfer routing indicator 121000358
> Bank of American branch 0914
> 4754 Admiralty Way
> Marina Del Ray, CA 90292-6905
> 310-247-2080
>
> Personal contact at branch is:
> Olga Erskine at 310-827-0162
>
>
> See also: www.icann.org
> =================================================================


Respectfully,

Jay Fenello
President, Iperdome, Inc.
404-943-0524  http://www.iperdome.com