[ncdnhc-discuss] Re: [bwg+] NCDNHC Response to Threatened Cutoff of NC Voting Rights

[Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law]

I disagree: fees for organizations that are non-commercial should be
waived on principle.  ICANN should not charge the NCC at all.

On Thu, 7 Feb 2002, Milton Mueller wrote:

> On Feb 1, 2002, representatives of the Noncommercial 
> Domain Name Holders Constituency received an email 
> asking us to show cause why our voting rights in the 
> Names Council should not be suspended.
> 
> This is the formal response of the NCDNHC Adcom.
> Here are your "causes:"
> 
> 1. The NCDNHC is making a good faith effort to collect 
> funds.
> 
> A membership dues program was initiated in the Fall. 
> We have collected about $6,000. Additional funds are 
> still coming in, as are additional memberships. 
> Collection was delayed somewhat by ICANN's method of 
> invoicing, which involved emailing 3Mb pdf files 
> directly to members. We greatly appreciate the 
> administrative support of ICANN staff, but many of our 
> members could not receive the ICANN invoice, due to 
> the size of the file. We are still dealing with the 
> consequences of that.
> 
> At any rate, when this program was instituted we made 
> it clear to the Names Council that we would NOT be 
> able to meet the deadlines imposed by the Names 
> Council sanctions program, but that over the longer 
> term we can be expected to develop stable and 
> substantial sources of financial support. At that time 
> we received assurances from several members that we 
> should go ahead with our efforts to raise money.
> 
> 2. Suspension of our voting rights would be 
> counterproductive.
> 
> Eliminating our voting rights will also eliminate any 
> future contributions from NCDNHC. The only effect of 
> such an action will be to INCREASE the financial 
> support burden of other constituencies. 
> 
> NCDNHC member organizations cannot be expected to 
> continue to provide financial support for the DNSO if 
> they are barred from voting. The constituency has 
> shown that it can generate funds, even in our current 
> relativelydisorganized state. With some forbearance 
> that amount will steadily grow. We see no reason why 
> DNSO would want to cut itself off from the funds that 
> we do generate.
> 
> 3. Suspension of voting rights would undermine the 
> legitimacy and effectiveness of the DNSO.
> 
> The DNSO was constructed to be a policy making body 
> that provides representation to the various interest 
> groups with a stake in domain name issues. It cannot 
> fulfill that function unless all groups are 
> represented. The DNSO has already received widespread 
> criticism for imbalances in its representational
> structure. To eliminate the voting rights of the 
> entire noncommercial sector because of a temporary 
> monetary shortfall that does not impair the DNSO's or 
> ICANN's ability to function would be perceived by the 
> rest of the world as small-minded. It would 
> undermine the only raison d'etre of the DNSO, which is 
> a mechanism for generating bottom-up consensus among 
> affected stakeholders.
> 
> 4. Unrealistic expectations.
> While we accept and are trying to meet our financial 
> obligations to DNSO, the NCDNHC is not composed of 
> organizations that generate multi-million dollar 
> revenue streams by means of domain names, nor is it 
> composed of large-scale telecommunication or content 
> producer businesses for whom lobbying is a routine cost
> of business. It is therefore not realistic to apply 
> the same financial support standards to us as to the 
> other constituencies.
> 
> To conclude, there are strong and sufficient
> reasons for the sanctions NOT to be applied in this 
> case. We hope that the Names Council as a whole will 
> vote that way at its upcoming meetings. 
> 
> Milton Mueller
> YJ Park
> Dany Vandromme
> Thierry Amoussougbo 
> 
> NCDNHC Adcom
> 

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A. Michael Froomkin   |    Professor of Law    |   froomkin at law.tm
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