[Expression] [governance] ICANN Board Vote Signals Era of Censorship in Domain Na

[Milton Mueller]

>>> Carlos Afonso <ca at RITS.ORG.BR> 4/4/2007 3:35 PM >>>
>regarding the vote (if I voted, of course). However, I think
>there is a lesson from this process (I understand ICANN
>learns from these processes): the more criteria derived
>from public comments and other inputs can become
>components of (or enrich) the standard "book of procedures"
>the better.

Funny, I draw the exact opposite conclusion. The less public comment
and the more the process is completely neutral and objective, the
better. Comments, challenges, objections simply politicize and
problematize everything needlessly.

As I pointed out in Lisbon, there are millions of registrations and
transfers of registrations in .com daily, and no one has big fights over
them. Or if they do have disputes, they are based not on subjective
feelings about what is appropriate globally, but on established legal
rights regarding trademark, etc. And these disputes come AFTER the
registration, not before.

The .com string is nevertheless globally available, just as a TLD would
be. So what is the difference?

Asking people for their opinion about what everyone else in the world
should do is just asking for trouble. It would stretch any institutional
process to its limit and beyond. The only result is to permit only the
most innocuous and probably meaningless and useless ideas to survive.
Anything controversial or interesting will not survive.

That is what we mean when we talk about "censorship." The effect is a
complete stifling of robust content and expression. Such a result is
inherent in any prior approval process that allows any group in the
world to object to what some other group is doing.

>I also think it has become crystal clear that TLDs which
>ombination of letters might confront resistance (of cultural,
>legal or similar nature) in one or more countries or
>communities, should in principle be discarded

Completely wrong, imho.
I understand that you are trying to show respect for different
cultures, etc. But the true effect of trying to do so is simply to
immobilize everyone. If everyone has a veto on what is published,
nothing is published.