On Sat, 4 Nov 2000, Dave Crocker wrote:
> At 11:31 PM 11/3/00 +0000, Jim Dixon wrote:
> >Given the now-crucial role
> >that the Internet plays in the global economy, ICANN's hegemony
> >gives, for example, representatives of small towns in California sitting
> >on the right committee in Sacramento remarkable and truly unique power
> >over the rest of the planet.
>
> Let's assume that the situation is as simple and unreasonable as you imply:
>
> As usual:
>
> 1. it is vastly easier to criticize the status quo than to propose
> something superior; and
>
> 2. it is vastly easier to propose general ideas than to provide detailed
> plans; and
>
> 3. it is vastly easier to specify a plan than to make it happen.
>
> So what is the point of offering the criticism, absent having done steps 1
> & 2, and some of 3, above?
I do believe that this is called begging the question.
Given ICANN's peculiar legal status and vulnerability to law suits,
I strongly recommended to the European Commission that steps be taken
to ensure that .EU would be delegated as a ccTLD rather than (as
proposed) a gTLD under ICANN's new procedures. Fortunately this advice
was accepted.
That is, we did steps 1, 2, and 3, and in consequence .EU will be
largely free from the ICANN mess.
> ps. Absent a U.N. basis, SOME national jurisdiction why apply. With a
> U.N. basis, other problems apply. This, of course, leads to the question
> about any of this line of complaint, rather than seeking to make the
> current structure work as well as it can.
Those involved in actually building the Internet on a day to day
basis spend a good deal of time engineering away single points of
failure. ICANN is just such a weak point. Having power over the
DNS, the Internet address space, and various other essential bits of
Internet infrastructure all concentrated in one private company in
California -- especially this particular private company -- is simply
foolish.
Whatever can be done to provide diversity and resilience in the
management of the Internet should be done. Keeping .EU clear from
ICANN's entanglements was a small but real step in this direction.
Need I point out how unnecessary and how destructive your habitual
sarcasm and contempt for others is?
--
Jim Dixon VBCnet GB Ltd http://www.vbc.net
tel +44 117 929 1316 fax +44 117 927 2015
