I found this news report of some concern, not because of what ICANN is
supposed to have done or not done, but because it seems there is a
presumption by some that ICANN is answerable to US Congress. I understood
that the whole purpose of setting up ICANN was to provide Internet
governance that was trans-national, not answerable to US Government.
#g
--
"ICANN Faces Hearing in Congress Over Domain Selections"
Computerworld Online (02/02/01); Thibodeau, Patrick
On Feb. 8, the House Commerce Committee will hold a hearing to examine
whether ICANN's
approval of only seven new top level domains hampers competition. Critics
of ICANN will likely
request that the committee make ICANN reopen the selection process.
Congress might even
attempt to get the Department of Commerce to keep the new TLDs from being
introduced,
according to insiders. DotTV CEO Lou Kerner has been discussing the issue
with the House
Commerce Committee and might testify at the coming hearing. Other critics
include the
ACLU and many of the unsuccessful TLD applicants, several of which might
take ICANN to
court. Others think ICANN's limited introduction was wise. ICANN's former
chairwoman,
Esther Dyson, wanted to introduce more TLDs, but she sides with ICANN,
saying that the
organization needed to limit the number of TLDs because of technical
concerns. ICANN's
choice was "reasonable" at the time, asserts Dyson. "It's pretty obvious
that more TLDs
means more opportunity for small businesses and entrepreneurs to get
meaningful domain
names that reflect their business interests as well as [their] free speech
interests," says
Domain Name Rights Coalition President Mikki Barry. The controversy ought
to be expected,
as there would be no need for ICANN if there were no difficult decisions to
be made, asserts
Jonathan Zittrain, the co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet &
Society at Harvard
University. The government would not have the support of businesses if it
attempted to
resume control over the domain name process, asserts Rick Lane, director of
e-commerce
and Internet technology at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/02/02/010202hnicann.xml
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Graham Klyne
([EMAIL PROTECTED])
