a few words on Sao Paulo mtg

[Robin Gross]

Hi there NCUC'ers:

I thought I'd post a few words to the list about the Sao Paulo ICANN
meeting.

1.  LSE Report on GNSO Reform
Our constituency should get its comments in regarding the
recommendations in the LSE Report on GNSO reform within 2 weeks.
Milton has already provided some comments and I don't mind making the
next edit to his comments and then posting that to the list.  Our
statement should be in within 2 weeks.

2.  New gTLDs and Draft GNSO Recommendations
Our constituency should submit its comments on the draft proposal for
the new gTLDS within the next few weeks also (due 20 Dec).  The current
proposal is terrible.  It would model speech for the Internet on ancient
19th century treaty language (trademarks) and forbid any words in new
gTLDs that have religious, sexual, or political connotations.  It would
put ICANN in a position to engage in massive censorship and choose
between competing standards of morality and religions.  Besides being
wrong on pure censorship grounds, the proposal is completely unworkable
and would put an enormous burden on ICANN staff to evaluate "worthiness"
between competing claims, evaluate business plans, review financial
statements, etc of new gTLD applicants.   It would also put a lot of
legal liability on ICANN and open it up to numerous lawsuits from any
party who felt ICANN wrongfully awarded a gTLD to a competitor.  I can
post more detailed comments on this issue to the list so we can begin to
prepare our constituency statement.  Its very important we provide
comments on this issue.

Also at our meeting with the GAC, we were told the GAC wants to be
mostly content-neutral and isn't pushing for the same level of
restrictions as the current GNSO draft recommendations are.   But GAC is
clearly concerned about controlling geographical terms in new gTLDs.

3.  Contractual terms
This was discussed on the list and I believe Mawaki submitted NCUC's
comments.

4.  WHOIS
The NCUC workshops on whois were interesting.   I estimate about 40
people in the room at the end of the 1st workshop.   Martin Boyle of the
UK was not able to attend after all due to the GAC vote on whois (GAC
could not reach an agreement on whois).   A representative from the FTC
attended and asked a lot of questions.  Rodin did not have much to say
to indicate what her views on the whois issue are.  Vittorio joined the
panel and described the situation in Italy.   I wasn't able to attend
the 2nd workshop because I had to go to the GAC-Board open meeting.  But
I was told it was a very engaging discussion (although with less people).

Avri, Wendy, and I submitted a proposal to waive publication of whois
data - except the DNS technical contact.  The proposal is in line with
the Wellington GNSO vote confirming the narrow technical purpose for the
whois database.  The proposal is in response to the new IPR/Biz Const.
"special circumstances" proposal that attempts to over-ride the
compromise OPOC proposal.  The "special circumstances" proposal puts
enormous barriers in front of anyone who wants or needs to protect their
privacy.

5.  NCUC Elections
  ** Important:  We need to have elections - like now.   We need to have
re-elections for our executive committee and a GNSO seat.   Who is in
charge of elections around here?

6.  ALAC won the ICANN soccer tournament.

That's all I can remember at the moment.   What else?

Norbert?  Mawaki?  Carlos?    ..... Bueller?

:-)
Robin