t byfield on 7 Oct 2000 04:05:40 -0000 |
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[Nettime-bold] roving_reporter, 26 sept - 6 oct: ICANN is gruesome detail |
<http://www.tbtf.com/roving_reporter/> ICANN finnagles its own Jim Crow Fri Oct 6 22:38:05 EDT 2000 No sooner had ICANN posted the list of applications for new TLDs[1] on 3 October than the Copyright Coalition for Domain Names (CCDN) -- which in less posh and/or more philosophical precincts might be compared to a "protection racket" -- presented the applicants with an offer they couldn't refuse. Steven Metalitz, Executive Vice President of the Intellectual Property Coalition (IPC)[2] and counsel for the CCDN sent them an email "request[ing] a copy of your application" in the hopes of "initiat[ing] a dialogue...on those aspects of new TLD applications that the IPC has identified as critical." (The IPC's "requirements" for new TLDs are here.) He went on to say, "The IPC and its constituent members have made careful review of the new TLD applications a high priority, and plan to participate actively *in the public debate* leading up to ICANN's decision on the roll-out of new TLDs" -- that is, in the public comment period of 9-27 October. Evidently, the CCDN got copies of some applications: on Thursday, 5 October, the president of the IPC distributed selected materials from iDomains (regarding their .biz/.ebiz/.ecom proposal), biz Regulatory and Advisory Council, LLC dba bizTrac (.biz, .ebiz, .firm, .inc, .real), ICM Registry, Inc. (.kids, .xxx), and SRI (.geo). But the rest of us lusers have to wait: evidently unaware that new TLDs might be a multibillion-dollar business, ICANN *underestimated* (sound familiar?) the number of applications they would receive -- and, as a result, have delayed pubicly posting the applications from 7 October to 11 October (i.e., two days into the public comment period in which the IPC will be so active). In effect, and once again, ICANN's missteps magnify the discrepancy between well-organized intellectual property lobbies, who get privileged access, and the unwashed massed, who get to wait. If two days doesn't sound like much, then why is the IPC is so eager to jump the gun? The answer: for genuine consensus-based processes, two days is a a spit in the bucket, but for backroom politicking it's not to be ignored. Does "backroom politicking" sound a bit harsh? Well, as ICANN sets about approving and rejecting proposed TLDs, ask yourself just where its mantras about "bottom-up" this and "consensus" that went. And why the sudden rush, after two years, to approve new TLDs before the November meeting in LA? Not that it really matters: the MAL boardmembers won't be seated until "the conclusion of" that meeting."[3] This is starting to smell a lot like the LA meeting where the UDRP was passed before the "initial" then "interim" boardmembers were elected. [1] <http://www.icann.org/tlds/tld-applications-lodged-02oct00.htm> [2] <http://ipc.songbird.com/> [3] <http://www.icann.org/general/bylaws.htm#II> [4] <http://www.tbtf.com/roving_reporter/jdrp.html> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - and finnagles a poll tax as well Fri Oct 6 22:38:39 EDT 2000 Initially, ICANN estimated that they would receive 7-20 proposals for new gTLDs, and that the *total* cost of reviewing the new TLD applications would be $350,000. On that basis -- where they get these numbers is anyone's guess but certainly not empirical -- they bass-ackwardly calculated that there should be an application fee of $7,500-$50,000. Not surprisingly, the organization that only one year ago was teetering on the edge of financial collapse took the hi^W low road and announced a nonrefundable gTLD application fee of $50,000. In fact, ICANN received 47 applications and, with them, a windfall of over $2.3 million dollars. Assuming that *their own worst-case estimates estimates are valid* -- and if they aren't why are they in charge of this stuff? -- reviewing the applications should cost somewhere between that amount and $822,500 (i.e., ($350K/20)*47) -- leaving a potential surplus of up to $1,527,500. Where will the extra money go? The roving_reporter's five bucks says JDRP.[5] It definitely won't go to the underfunded-by-underestimation MAL -- that, ICANN insists, is a "special project." But it could go to paying off... [5] <http://www.tbtf.com/roving_reporter/icann1.html> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ICANN's "bridge-loan into the future" Fri Oct 6 22:39:05 EDT 2000 According to ICANN's general loan-disclosure statement[6] (note well: page last amended 2 February 2000), the organization "executed one-year unsecured loan agreements" with Cisco, MCI/WorldCom, 3Com, and Deutsche Telekom. But the disclosure is window-dressing: it doesn't mention *the date on which the loans were executed*. For that we have to look to ICANN's 4 May 2000 proposed budget,[7] which mentions "currently outstanding short term loans in the amount of $1.025 million [that might be] repaid on schedule in August, 2000." And indeed, just over a year earlier, the 26 July 1999 board meeting minutes[8] confirm the term: "a number of commercial entities have indicated a willingness to loan the Corporation funds for a *one-year term* at interest of 7% or below." Why, then, in its successful[9] 30 September 1999 application to the IRS for tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status -- filed in the middle of all these othere "disclosures" -- did ICANN claim that it had "obtained non-recourse loans from several entities for a *minimum* term of one year, to be repaid *after a permanent funding mechanism is created*"? Maybe because it's safer to fib to the public than to the IRS? The roving_reporter asked ICANN's Maximum Leader Mike Roberts about this systematic discrepancy between statements made to the public and statements made to the IRS, and he said: The information was consistent with what was known about the status of our budget and general financial condition at the time the documents were prepared. The Board's direction to me re extensions was after my financial report in Yokohama in July, which is referred to prospectively in the budget resolution in June, etc. If you want to pursue more angles on financial condition, you shd probably wait until the report of the external audit is released in October. They get the last word on these matters. See related Yokohama resolution. In other words, he didn't answer the question. Instead, we are to wait for the audit reports -- like, say, the one that mentioned that ICANN had paid $223,696 to "a company which is owned by a principal member of [ICANN]'s management"[10] but failed to specify that the company is the Darwin Group in which Roberts and his wife are the principal stockholders.[11] So does reviewing $50,000 applications for new gTLDs constitute the "permanent funding mechanism" that, according to ICANN's statements to the IRS, will trigger loan repayments? Or is that, like the MAL, just another "special project" that happened to net ICANN $2.3 million? If so, maybe the shareholders of Cisco, MCI/WorldCom, 3Com, and Deutsche Telekom made a good investment after all. [6] <http://www.icann.org/general/loaninfo.htm> [7] <http://www.icann.org/financials/proposed-budget-04may00.htm> [8] <http://www.icann.org/minutes/minutes-26july99.htm> [9] <http://www.icann.org/financials/tax/us/irs-letter-grant-28aug00.htm> [10] <http://www.icann.org/financials/financial-report-fye-30jun99.htm> [11] <http://www.tbtf.com/roving_reporter/icann1.html#21> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - David Post on the UDRP Fri Oct 6 01:01:01 EDT 2000 David Post has posted an essay[12] summarizing some fundamental problems with ICANN's UDRP. He concludes: The UDRP, though, is just the opening wedge, the first step in what will likely be a long journey towards the design of the new set of legal institutions that will be setting rules and creating a degree of order for the global network. For better or for worse, this private law-making model is likely to serve as a template for other, more complex and more significant issues, whether administered through ICANN and the domain name system or otherwise. We'll be sorry -- very sorry, I think -- if we don't get it right. Bingo. [12] <http://www.temple.edu/lawschool/dpost/Juries.html> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The New Republic: "Kool-aid, anyone?" Fri Oct 6 00:54:46 EDT 2000 Damien Cave, who covers intellectual property issues for Salon,[13] has written an article about ICANN[14] for The New Republic online. It's a tour de force of misinformation and credulity. For a terse rebuttal, see Jamie Love's[15]; for a thorough trouncing, see Milton Mueller's letter to TNR. ***Addendum: Cave seems to have backed away rather suddenly from deriding ICANN critics as a bunch of net.kooks:[16] here's a Salon article about Barb Simons's candidacy for the MAL.[17]*** [13] <http://www.salon.com/directory/topics/damien_cave/index.html> [14] <http://www.tnr.com/online/cave092600.html> [15] <http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/09/29/0544251&mode=thread> [16] <http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/faqs/legends.html> [17] <http://www.salon.com/tech/log/2000/10/06/simons/index.html> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Another golden roving_reporter award... Thu Oct 5 14:43:44 EDT 2000 ...goes to Judith Oppenheimer, publisher of ICBTollFree News for her headline "BROWN OF NOSE, CRANED OF NECK, DOT WS PUCKERS UP TO TM BOOTY." The story?[18] WorldSite, the commercially oriented maintainer of the .ws ccTLD for Western Samoa,[19] tried to drum up business by "declaring war on 'cybersquatters'" -- reserving "all .ws domain names of Forune 500 public companies, Fortune 500 private companies, the top 200 Internet companies, as well as all professional sports teams for 90 days!" The roving_reporter boldly predicts that WorldSite will declare a truce with cybersquatters in, say, 91 days. [18] <http://icbtollfree.com/articleId4595.html> [19] <http://www.nic.ws/> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - European MAL candidate resources Thu Oct 5 14:43:44 EDT 2000 The rash of recent press and notices about ICANN Membership At Large candidates has centered on the North American candidates (see Slashdot's list here[20]), but these candidates are running for only one of five new regional MAL seats. On 22 September, FITUG e.V.,[21] the Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft, held a moderated English-language IRC session with the European candidates; the log is available here.[22] Fitug also maintains a discussion list, icann-europe,[23] "to facilitate communications between the general public, including ICANN At Large Members, and the candidates for the European at large director's seat." [20] <http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/10/05/1128232&mode=thread> [21] <http://www.fitug.de/> [22] <http://www.icannchannel.de/irc1.html> [23] <http://www.fitug.de/icann-europe/index.html> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ICANN: transparency through obscurity Thu Oct 5 14:45:43 EDT 2000 For several weeks, the roving_reporter pressed ICANN to release information about the systems supporting the MAL signup process -- *the first and only* genuinely technical process that ICANN itself has undertaken to date -- whose failures were widely noted (including in this space[24]). In light of those failures, and in light of ICANN's attempts to blame them on "media organs...behaving quite irresponsibly" rather than admitting that ICANN had throttled the systems' processing capabilities in order to limit signups,[25] I requested: (1) "the hardware configuration of the server(s) on which the MAL signup process is running"; (2) info on "who or what company wrote the software for the MAL signup process"; (3) "documents associated with the specification of the hardware/software configuration used for the MAL signup process"; and (4) a statement as to whether "the implementation of the MAL signup process [was] subject to an open and/or competitive bid?" In its inimitable style, ICANN hasn't refused these requests: instead, after much hand-waving, it has *refused to refuse them*. On 8 August, Board chair Esther Dyson wrote with a familiar non-newtonian candor, "our system was inadequate for the demands it ultimately had to serve. There's no secret there. The board made its estimates, and we were wrong" -- the consequence of which was the hobbling of public-interest representation to counterbalance ICANN's well-entrenched representatives of commercial interests. On 18 August she brushed off the questions for good: "I don't consider [it] a priority...to find out." Maximum Leader Mike Roberts's approach was more elaborate. On 18 August he misdirected me to "the revised instructions to the staff[26]...contained in the Board resolution," rather than providing what I asked for, namely, the staff's instructions to the vendor. On 3 September he wrote, "the system has performed excellently against its original specification" -- which of course is *the problem* -- and went on to say: I think what the community needs is impartial and complete analysis of the entire body of work on At Large, which to some extent goes back before ICANN to the discussions about what a user constituency was intended to contribute to the new corporation's technical management work. I personally don't see any way to arrive at such an analysis except through the careful work of the study group next year, its exposition of the background data provided to it by the staff, and the comments and suggestions also provided to it by the public, both professionally and non-professionally. When the press sees the study report, there will be ample opportunity to consult your own sources, experts, etc and challenge any part of the conclusions and recommendations you wish. When I pointed out that it seemed odd for a self-styled "transparent" "technical" organization to refuse these requests, he fell silent. Roberts's response is certainly articulate, but it's clear from his response that ICANN intends to steer inquiry away from ICANN's technical competence in implementing the MAL signup system to a very different question indeed -- *whether the Membership At Large should exist at all.* This agenda was made abundantly clear at the July Yokohama meeting in a number of ways: - changes to ICANN's by-laws[27] stipulating that the newly elected MAL boardmembers "shall be seated *at the conclusion of* the Annual Meeting of the Corporation in 2000" (i.e., too late to do anything); and calling for a "'clean' sheet study -- meaning that previous decisions and conclusions will be informative but not determinative, and that the study will start with no preconceptions [i.e., the MAL's existence and right to elect boardmembers] as to a preferred outcome." - a discussion in which ICANN's board, staff, and JDRP General Counsel Joe Sims engaged in a (IV.N.5ff.) tendentiously scholastic discussion[28] about debates at the Cairo meeting, where commercial interests had tried to quash democratic representation *of users* on ICANN's board (RealFnord is available here[29] at 7.20ff.). We shall see how candidly this "clean sheet" study assesses ICANN's implementation of the MAL signup system. [24] <http://www.tbtf.com/roving_reporter/icann1.html#17> [25] <http://www.tbtf.com/roving_reporter/icann1.html#13> [26] <http://www.icann.org/minutes/prelim-report-10mar00.htm> [27] <http://www.icann.org/yokohama/atlargebylaws-topic.htm> [28] <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/yokohama/archive/scribe-icann-071500.html> [29] <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/scripts/rammaker.asp?s=cyber&dir=icann&file=icann-071500&start=28-48> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - So much ICANN, so little time... Tue Oct 3 22:04:55 EDT 2000 On the, um, accountability front, Newsbytes paraphrases[30] ICANN Uberstaffer Andrew McLaughlin as saying the ICANN board "often bucks ICANN staff recommendations in making its final judgments on Internet governance matters" -- as opposed to merely *rubberstamping* staff recommendations, of course... After subjecting the world to a years-long "election," Name.space[31] proposes a laundry list of 116 TLDs that's different from the top 116 vote-getters.[32] Diffing that list against the one in ICANN's list of proposed TLDs[33] reveals a subtle but undeniable shift to the right, with allegedly bottom-up gems such as ".fuck", ".girl", ".hacker", ".hell", and ".pub" losing out to top-down gambits for world domination like ".antiques", ".church", ".dtv", ".opera", ".soup" (due to intense competition in the Marx Brothers space) and ".times" (due to intense competition in the Charlie Chaplin space)... Ken Stubbs flaks[34] for Afilias's[35] proposed TLDs ".info," ".site," and ".web." Wait, isn't that the same Ken Stubbs who represents registrars[36] on ICANN's Names Council? No -- wait! No problem: article V-7 of ICANN's by-laws[27] say "The Board shall adopt policies specifically addressing Director, Officer and Supporting Organization conflicts of interest." *Phew!* OK, so where's that DNSO conflict-of-interest policy? It's got to be around here somewhere. Oh, yeah -- *you can't be in the DNSO unless you have a conflict of interest*... ICANN Maximum Leader Mike Roberts refuses for months to reveal the deep, dark secret of who wrote the crufty MAL signup software, not realizing that ICANN staffers at Yokohama happily chatted about how hard ardent ICANN-lover and paid consultant to ICANN Kent Crispin worked on it -- as well as on all the constituency elections systems. Pay no attention to that man behind the curt^W lever... WWW stands for Web Web Web, it seems: three proposals for ".web"? One of them from none other than CORE-cutout[38] Afilias (q.v.). Now, the trademark-loving COREniks know very well that IOD[39] already trademarked ".web",[40] so whatever are they thinking? Well, Milton Mueller's analysis of ICANN[41] as yet another incarnation of the IANA-ISOC-gTLD-MoUvement might provide fodder for those inclined to think that ICANN has reason to be less than even-handed[42] in its treatment of IOD -- especially in light of IOD's suits against the IAHC[43] and CORE[44]. And then there's Lockheed-Martin-Marietta spinoff Neustar's[45] ".web": IOD may pride itself on running a functioning registry for years, but Neustar runs NANPA[46]... ***Addendum: In light of IOD's lawsuit against CORE over the latter's attempted use of ".web" and CORE-supported Afilias's application to ICANN for ".web", it's well worth looking back at the confrontation between IOD's Chris Ambler and Ken Stubbs[47] at the July 14 DNSO Names Council (NC) section of ICANN's Yokohama meeting (at section III.G.44; RealFnord is here[48] at 4:21-25). Ambler, a contributor to Working Group C tasked with making recommendations for new gTLDs, used the "comment period" to ask NC Chair Stubbs why the NC has overruled WGC's hard-won consensus recommendation for 6-10 new gTLDs; Stubbs refused to answer (Ambler: "Am I going to get an answer? No?" Stubbs: "Not at this time, sir, no."). Now, three months later, Stubbs -- still chair of the NC as representative of a Supporting Organization that has no conflict-of-interest policy -- reappears as spokesmodel for the Afilias consortium. And it was his NC that issued a statement[49] on 29 September "Warn[ing that] Pre-Registration of Speculative New Domain Names Is Premature" -- which is exactly what IOD has been doing by running a functioning registry for several years.*** [30] <http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/156049.html> [31] <http://www.name-space.com/> [32] <http://vote.global-namespace.net/> [33] <http://www.icann.org/tlds/tld-applications-lodged-02oct00.htm> [34] <http://www.afilias.com/LaunchRelease4b.rtf> [35] <http://www.afilias.com/> [36] <http://www.icann.org/dnso/nc-members.htm> [37] <http://www.icann.org/general/archive-bylaws/bylaws-10mar00.htm#V> [38] <http://new.corenic.org/> [39] <http://www.webtld.com/> [40] <http://wsj.nameprotect.com/> [41] <http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/dns99/spkr-Mueller.htm> [42] <http://www.icann.org/announcements/icann-pr29sep00.htm> [43] <http://www.tbtf.com/resource/dom-name-hist-97-96.html> [44] <http://www.dnso.org/dnso/dnsocomments/comments-wgb/Arc00/msg00037.html> [45] <http://www.neustar.com/about/profile/index.html> [46] <http://www.nanpa.com/> [47] <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/yokohama/archive/scribe-icann-071500.html> [48] <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/scripts/rammaker.asp?s=cyber&dir=icann&file=icann-071400-fixed&start=4-23-44> [49] <http://www.icann.org/announcements/icann-pr29sep00.htm> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Milosevic, BOFH Sat Sep 30 14:12:23 EDT 2000 Xeni Jardin of the Silicon Alley Reporter daily reports[50] that "one of Yugoslavia's senior top level domain (TLD) administrators" has alleged that "a series of personal threats and blackmail from a Milosevic government official compelled a member of the .yu TLD administration team to temporarily take over and redirect" opposition sites during the elections in Yugoslavia. [50] <http://www.siliconalleydaily.com/issues/sar09272000.html#Headline6290> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Our Ouija board says... Sat Sep 30 14:12:12 EDT 2000 ...E...D...RESIGNS...C-O-B -- *chairman of the board*? -- ...B4...LA NOV...LEST...MAL MMBRS...VOTE...ON...NEW...COB... *Who are you*? J...P... *Really*? NO...CUL8R... *Will* Esther resign? *Who* will replace her? *Will* ICANN seize the opportunity for tearful pomp and circumstance to upstage any MAL activities? Stay tuned... And whatever happened to that executive search[51] to replace Maximum Leader Mike Roberts? The roving_reporter can think of at least one candidate who'll soon be "between opportunities" who has all the qualifications: a proven ability to manufacture consensus, a detailed understanding of elections and institutional dynamics, and a strong interest in DNS issues. Stay tuned... [51] <http://www.icann.org/announcements/icann-pr03may00.htm> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - MAL? What MAL? Oh, that MAL... Sat Sep 30 14:12:02 EDT 2000 ICANN announced the agenda[52] for its November meeting in Los Angeles. There are no plans for the shiny new Membership At Large to meet. [52] <http://www.icann.org/mdr2000/#schedule> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - LolitaWatch, v. 2.0 offers new features Sat Sep 30 14:12:39 EDT 2000 C|Net is reporting[53] (if you call a press release larded out with factoid filler grafs "reporting") that a bloke in San Diego by the name of Page Howe has submitted a proposal to ICANN for a .kids domain. The optimistic Mr. Howe further boosted morale in the ICANN offices when he said, "If we get rejected this time around, we'll just keep trying until ICANN thinks it's a good idea"; evidently, he's earmarked $10 million for his ICANN-funding program. One wag has echoed Tim May's response to a prior proposal along these lines[54] by dubbing Mr. Howe's project a "whois for pedophiles." [53] <http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-202-2896738.html> [54] <http://staff.qnx.com/~glen/deadbeef/1151.html> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Jamie Love on the ICANN DNSO election results Tue Sep 26 00:50:42 EDT 2000 The ever-excellent Jamie Love of the Consumer Project on Technology has posted an interesting note[55] about ICANN's DNSO (Domain Name Supporting Organization) elections to his "Random-bits" list,[56] which offers "a pretty good indication of the DNSO power structure," hence of the prevailing forces in ICANN. Note that Jamie received 127 endorsements, just a few shy of the total number of endorsements received by all the competing candidates combined -- and more than four times the number received by the election's winner, Jonathan Cohen, "the strongest voice for big corporate trademark interests on the ICANN board." [55] <http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/random-bits/2000-September/000342.html> [56] <http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/random-bits> _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold