Many people are concerned that the unelected, unaccountable interim ICANN
board is rushing through the process and over-extending its authority. The
following Petition to ICANN to turn the WIPO Report recommendations over to
a fully constituted DNSO for due consideration is being circulated prior to
the Berlin meeting.
To join the growing list of signatories, please send name and/or
affiliation in email to me, NOT to this list. The petition is posted at:
www.domainhandbook.com/petition-0599.html
__________________________________________________________________________
PETITION TO ICANN AND THE U.S. DEPT. OF COMMERCE
On May 6, 1999, the following statement was posted on the ICANN web site at
http://www.icann.org/wipo/wipo.htm
The ICANN Board of Directors will consider the WIPO Final Report,
including its annexes, at its May 27 meeting and will take appropriate
action, which may include from [sic] seeking further comments on the
recommendations, referring of some or all of them to other ICANN
entities, and/or adopting certain of the recommendations.
The undersigned strongly object to the last phrase in this sentence,
referring to "adopting certain of the recommendations." We wish to see any
reference to "adoption" removed from the Berlin meeting agenda.
Under the "bottom up" philosophy articulated in the White Paper and in
ICANN's own by-laws, important decisions regarding domain name policy were
supposed to be passed up to ICANN's board by the Domain Name Supporting
Organization (DNSO). The DNSO does not exist yet. ICANN has encouraged
numerous individuals and organizations to make substantial investments in
the creation of the DNSO and its constituencies, with the promise that
good-faith participation in the process would give them a voice in policy
making. Those expectations would be unjustly frustrated if ICANN adopted
any recommendations of the WIPO proposals in Berlin.
ICANN's current board was appointed on a temporary basis and was not
elected by a membership. Its sole mandate is to get the organization
started and to fill the gaps in its membership, board and by-laws. It is
not appropriate for a board with interim status to make lasting policy on
such a sensitive and complex matter. It is, in fact, a cause for great
concern for ICANN even to publicly propose adopting such proposals at this
juncture.
The WIPO recommendations comprise over 120 pages of dense legal prose. The
final report will have been out for public consideration only three weeks
when the Berlin meeting is convened. Whether one supports or opposes the
proposals, it is undeniable that they will have a profound and permanent
impact on domain name registrations and on international intellectual
property rights. No legitimate purpose can be served by hasty adoption or
by short-circuiting the deliberative process that ICANN was created to
foster. Furthermore, we question the ability of the current Board to
properly assess the WIPO recommendations and comments about them amidst the
flood of comments and documents pertaining to other important matters, such
as the DNSO, ASO, and PSO formation, the definition of the constituencies,
and the Membership Advisory Committee recommendations.
We feel that the whole idea of ICANN would be undermined if the interim
board were to make fundamental and permanent changes in domain name policy
with inadequate information, without even the possibility of consultation
with a DNSO and the other supporting organizations, and without members.
The overall effect would be highly destructive of the trust and cooperation
that is required to run the Internet properly.
We urge the Board to wait until the DNSO is formed and then send the WIPO
report to the DNSO for the DNSO's consideration.
Signed:
Laina Raveendran Greene, GetIT Pte Ltd., WIPO Panel of Experts, SINGAPORE
Roger Hicks, WIPO Panel of Experts, NEW ZEALAND
Ellen Rony and Peter Rony, Authors, Domain Name Handbook, USA
Milton Mueller, Syracuse University School of Information Studies, USA
Lawrence Lessig, Harvard University, USA
David J. Farber, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Kathy Kleiman, Esq., Counsel, Domain Name Rights Coalition, USA
Scott Bradner, Harvard University USA
Anthony M. Rutkowski, USA
James V. DeLong, USA
Dan Steinberg SYNTHESIS Law & Technology, CANADA
Harold Feld, USA
Tressa Kirby, VRx, CANADA
Richard Sexton, VRx, CANADA
Gene Marsh, AnyCAST, USA
David J. Steele, USA
Gordon Cook, The Cook Report on the Internet, USA
Karl Auerbach, USA
Image Online Design, Inc. USA
Jay Fenello, Iperdome, Inc. USA
Patrick Greenwell, Telocity, USA
Mikki Barry, Esq. USA
Eric Weisberg, Internet Texoma, USA
David Schutt, Speco Inc., USA
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology, USA
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, USA
Peter Veeck, Regional Web, USA
Eva Jettmar, SRCT Lab Group, Stanford University, USA
Paul Garrin, Name.Space International, USA
Babeth Mondini, School of the Arts, Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS
Craig A. Johnson, Transnational Data Reporting Service, Inc. USA
Marcy J. Gordon, Esq., Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, USA
Shumpei Kumon, Center for Global Communications, International University
of Japan, JAPAN
Adam Peake, Center for Global Communications, International University of
Japan, JAPAN
Alex Adriaansens, V2 Organisation, NETHERLANDS
Melvin Khoo, GetIT Pte Ltd., SINGAPORE
Charles Mok, HKNet, HONG KONG
Sebastian Luetgert, ROLUX.ORG, GERMANY
InterWorking Labs, Inc. USA
Mohamed B. Awang-Lah, Mimos Berhad, MALAYSIA
Oscar A. Robles Garay, NIC-Mexico, MEXICO
Coralee Whitcomb, Virtually Wired Educational Foundation, USA
Onno Hovers, NETHERLANDS
Please send your name and affiliation if you wish to join this petition.
Ellen Rony Co-author
The Domain Name Handbook ____ http://www.domainhandbook.com
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