The CENTR document presented yesterday to ICANN as a compromise DNSO draft
is a sell-out of fundamental Paris draft positions:
-- Section 4.4 says that the Names Council, rather than the DNSO membership,
will select the DNSO-appointed ICANN Board members.
-- Section 6.3 gives ICANN the authority to allow or disallow any DNSO
constituency.
-- Section 7.5 gives the Names Council the power to decide how many votes
each constituency has.
-- Section 9.1 puts decision-making on DNSO policy transmittal to ICANN into
the hands of the Names Council, not the membership.
-- Worst of all, the CENTR document recognizes only five constituencies:
gTLD Registries, ccTLD Registries, Commercial and Business Interests,
Trademark and Intellectual Property Interests, and ISP and Communication
Provider Interests. That is, it gives two-fifths of the DNSO to big business
and their lawyers, while refusing DNSO membership to individual domain name
holders, non-profit organizations, and even registrars.
The CENTR document is even more reactionary than the BMW draft, and it's no
wonder that the BMW supporters accepted it. What's amazing is that Bret
Fausett and Antony Van Couvering would accept it on behalf of the Paris
draft. Staying at nice hotels in Singapore and drinking in sumptuous bars
with well-dressed corporation lawyers has had its effect.
The only voice of protest against the above heinous provisions of the CENTR
document was that of Jay Fenello, who has emerged, together with Barbara
Dooley of CIX (see below), as the hero of Singapore. The rest of the Paris
draft supporters, including David Johnson representing NSI, caved in to the
CENTR/BMW positions without a fight.
It now remains for the ICANN Board to put reason, equity, and a minimal
sense of justice back into what otherwise promises to be a wholly
unrepresentative and authoritarian DNSO. It's a sad day when the DNS
community must rely on the unelected ICANN Board to set its house in order.
SINGAPORE ANECDOTES : ICANN and the DNSO
In response to queries from the assembled DNSO interests, Don Tellage of NSI
stated that, under the new regime of shared registrars, the domain name
registration form/template will be the same for all, including NSI's
registrar. Mr. Tellage was also asked whether registrants will still be able
to register their own domain names, but he declined to answer this important
question and the questioner didn't pursue it. This should have been a matter
of some interest to the assembled existing and potential registrars, and one
can only assume by their silence on the subject that they would rather not
know the answer, on the theory that what is unspoken is undecided.
During the discussion posterior to Dennis Jennig's presentation of the CENTR
document, Hans Kraaijenbrink, the ICANN board member who had distinguished
himself in Boston by championing closed board meetings, asked why the Paris
draft supporters didn't just shut up and let the BMW supporters get on with
it. Apparently dismayed by such outspoken prejudice on the part of an ICANN
board member, Barbara Dooley of CIX had the courage to confront the board on
its own conflict of interest provisions, and asked them point blank to
disclose vested interests in the drafts. Mr. Kraaijenbrink, whose
partisanship knows no shame, admitted that the interests he represents -
certain European telcos - had indeed come out in favor of the BMW draft,
which, he hastened to add, enjoyed the support of the vast majority of
important DNS interests, in his not-so-humble opinion. A sense of shocked
disbelief ran through the audience at the brazenness of this ICANN board
member's favoritism and arrogance. Jay Fenello went up to the mic and
suggested that, under the circumstances, Mr. Kraaijenbrink ought perhaps to
excuse himself from joining the board's decision-making about the DNSO. He
naturally refused to do so.
Ms. Dooley further distinguished herself by telling Joe Sims and the
assembly that the Accreditation Guidelines for Registrars were neither more
nor less than a bureaucratic regulatory regime, and that they were
unnecessary and unwanted. Mr. Sims did not disappoint us by telling the
truth in his response; he limited himself to replying that (in his opinion
as the illegal ICANN Board's counsel and the perjurer of the House
Subcommittee hearings) the Guidelines were not regulatory. The Suntec
Convention Center auditorium reverberated with much bitter snickering.
Ivan Pope, President of Netnames, expressed his dismay at the new
regulations and at the apparent denial of even a forum for protest, since
the current DNSO proposal hasn't a constituency for registrars. Mr. Pope
must be commended on his exercise of restraint: frustrated beyond human
endurance, he neither cried nor screamed nor resorted to violence against
his antagonists or himself.
Yours truly made an attempt to stand up to the spokesman from WIPO, a
dishonest character whose name I've forgotten and who portrayed the WIPO
recommendations as a benign series of positive "suggestions", avoiding any
mention of the draconian, extra-legal, anti-domain name holder, pro-big
business police measures WIPO is currently pressuring the ICANN Board to
adopt because law courts won't have anything to do with them. He tried to
portray the Panel of Experts dissent from WIPO's RFC3 as coming from a
single eccentric source rather than from the cool, collected, and
well-informed person of Michael Froomkin. When I got him to admit that the
WIPO process was not yet over, and suggested that it was premature for ICANN
to be making any decisions about adopting WIPO's recommendations, I was
interrupted and made to shut up by Esther Dyson and others on the board. So
much for free speech and Robert's Rules of Order.
Finally, Joe Sims announced that as of last week ICANN is officially the
NewCo. Beckwith Burr was in attendance, and acquiesced by her silence. The
announcement was greeted with applause from an auditorium of Asia-Pacific
networkers whose critical faculties had been dulled by their pleasure at
being the center of dubious international attention. Mr. Sims omitted any
mention of the grounds for his proclamation and there were no inquiries,
proponents and opponents of ICANN alike having long since abandoned any
expectation of a legal or even a moral excuse for its existence. B. Burr and
D. Tellage were seen leaving the Suntec Center together, the pair laughing
and enjoying themselves immensely.
