commercial and contractual constituencies meddling in structure of noncommercial group is unacceptable

[Robin Gross]

Don't think I can post to the GNSO Council list, so will an NCUC  
Councilor please pass along this message.  Thank you!  Robin

----

Dear GNSO Councilors:

It is completely unacceptable for the structure of the new NCSG to be  
defined and shaped by commercial users and contracting parties.   
Noncommercial stakeholders can and will define their own structure  
suitable to themselves and not be manipulated by other stakeholder  
groups who might seek to undermine its effectiveness.  It is naïve  
and disingenuous to pretend that the different SGs don't have  
competing and often conflicting interests.

We note that no one has invited NCUC or ALAC to participate in  
defining a new structure for the Commercial SG, or the Registrar and  
Registry SGs. This kind of discrimination among SGs will discourage  
additional noncommercial entities from participating in ICANN's GNSO.

Please note that NCUC has already proposed a structure for the NCSG  
that has the overwhelming support of the noncommercial stakeholders  
currently active in ICANN.  We have conveyed it to At Large,  
discussed its principles in public meetings in Cairo, and are in  
conversations with staff about it now.  While we welcome efforts to  
amend it from new constituency proponents and relevant members of At  
Large, that proposal will serve as the basis for any NCSG proposals  
that go to the Board.

We have no objection in principle to working with At large members  
and RALOs in this process, and as noted before we have already tried  
to include them in our ongoing process.  But we also note that  
individual or organizational At Large members may also be commercial  
users and thus ineligible to join a future noncommercial SG, and thus  
have no legitimate role to play in the definition of our structure.

The Board Governance Committee has made it clear on numerous  
occasions that Stakeholder Groups themselves should play a leading  
role in defining their structure. Explicit statements to that effect  
have been made by Roberto Gaetano, former Board members and BGC  
member Susan Crawford, and Harald Alvestrand.  This is, quite  
obviously, the right approach.

Best,
Robin Gross
Chair of Non-Commercial Users Constituency


IP JUSTICE
Robin Gross, Executive Director
1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA  94117  USA
p: +1-415-553-6261    f: +1-415-462-6451
w: http://www.ipjustice.org     e: robin at ipjustice.org



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