http://www.canarie.ca/cdncc/main.html (www.cira.ca is only a redirection page at present) Public Consultation On The Administration Of The Canadian Internet Domain Name .CA By The Canadian Domain Name Consultative Committee. "... All admissible comments received electronically will be archived in the World Wide Web site at www.canarie.ca/cdncc/comments for public consultation unless otherwise explicitly requested to be excluded." [Nothing is there] "Following the consultation period the CDNCC will meet to discuss the comments received and make changes to the proposal for the administration of the .CA domain name as is deemed appropriate by the committee. "The final recommendation for the administration of the .CA domain name will then be posted on the web site by March 15, 1998." [ The frontpage (updated 19 Jan) lists the "Final Report of the CDNCC"-- but it hails from 15 Sep 98. BylawV71 -- "IN WITNESS WHEREOF we have set our hands at the City of Ottawa, on the * day of *, 19*." may or may not be this "final recommendation" but it seems to avoid most of the tangles ICANN has gotten into. In any case, the original proposals put forward for comment are still up, at http://www.canarie.ca/cdncc/main.html In particular, I note as part of the Board Structure:] ~/board.html 14.1 Membership It is further recommended that the members of CIRA should be the domain name licensees and therefore be the ones to elect the directors to the Board. It is illegal in Canada to require someone to become a member of a corporation. This implies that the domain name [*]licensees[*] must formally signify their willingness to be a member of CIRA..." and the sections of ~/bylwawv71.html "CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP 46. Membership in the Corporation shall be limited to Registrants who shall become Members at the time of becoming a Registrant. Registrants shall have the right to refuse or rescind membership at any time. Members who cease to be Registrants or fail to pay membership fees, if any, or Registrants fees (in accordance with the Corporation's policies) shall no longer be Members of the Corporation forthwith after such event." and 11. Directors need not be Members. [No grandfather clause for extant registrants? One can resign; can one later rejoin? Can a resigned member be a Director? It appears that if one *voluntarily* wishes to have a .ca registration, one is a voting member of CIRA. (Is more formality than ones signature on the registration application required ?)] "The committee also recommends that the Federal Government of Canada have a permanent seat on the CIRA Board as an ex-officio member (non-voting). Additionally it is recommended that the other three member organizations of the committee (.CA Committee, CAIP and CISOC) each be guaranteed one seat on the CIRA Board for the [*]first three years[*] of operation of the corporation (these reserved seats would be part of the 10 directors leaving only 7 seats to be filled by elections for the first three years. The individuals representing these groups would be appointed as directors annually by each group respectively in a manner of their choosing.). This is intended to insure additional stability at the beginning of operations." [ FYI, these are Bernard Turcotte of the Canadian Internet Society as the Internet Users Director, Robert Hall of the Canadian Association of Internet Providers as the Commercial Interests Director and John Demco of the .CA Committee of the Canadian Domain Name Consultative Committee as the Registrars Director. Seven other Directors will be chosen by the 'at large' Members.] "V71.13. The Chair of the Corporation shall set a date each year for the election, by electronic vote as provided in paragraph 16, of the Members' Directors of the Corporation (the "Directors Election Day")... "50. The annual or any other general or special meeting of the Members shall be held at the head office of the Corporation or at any place in Canada as the Board may determine and on such day as the Board shall determine. "52. At every annual general meeting of Members, in addition to any other business that may be transacted: (a) the report of the Board, the financial statements and the report of the auditors shall be presented to the Members and, (b) the auditors of the Corporation shall be appointed by the Members for the ensuing year. The Members may consider and transact any business either special or general at any meeting of the Members." [Its difficult for me to see what other business there might be that would require physical presence, when Director elections can be conducted electronically. Is this all just incorporation boilerplate? ] ============ In view of concerns about names as property, the CIRA Corporation seems in position to claim 'eminent domain' over any and all 'intellectual property' rights in names that are not covered by trademark. Im not sure this is a bad way to go, but it might be worth spelling it out further. Cheers, kerry
