OReilly Media on "ICANN without restraints: the difficulties of coordinating stakeholders"

[Milton L Mueller]

Yes, Robin, when people like me say that ICANN isn't accountable to anyone we know that the Board has ultimate decision making power but the issue is to whom are THEY accountable? 

A corporate board is accountable to the shareholders. 

Most Cal. Non Profit Public Benefits are accountable to a membership. 

ICANN has no members. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Non-Commercial User Constituency [mailto:NCUC-
> DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Jorge Amodio
> Sent: Saturday, October 03, 2009 7:39 PM
> To: NCUC-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
> Subject: Re: [NCUC-DISCUSS] OReilly Media on "ICANN without restraints:
> the difficulties of coordinating stakeholders"
> 
> Thanks for the clarification Robin. Then am I right saying that besides
> the
> BoD under the law the organization is not accountable to its
> constituents ?
> 
> Regards
> Jorge
> 
> On Sat, Oct 3, 2009 at 5:39 PM, Robin Gross <robin at ipjustice.org> wrote:
> > On Oct 3, 2009, at 7:21 AM, Jorge Amodio wrote:
> >
> > [...]
> > I'm not an attorney so correct me if I'm wrong. As far as I know being
> ICANN
> > a non-profit CA corp with no institutional "members", legally besides to
> the
> > Attorney General, ICANN still is accountable to ... nobody ?
> > [...]
> >
> > Technically, ICANN is a California not-for-profit corporation so it is
> > primarily accountable to its corporate board of directors.  Under the
> law,
> > the buck stops with them because they have a fiduciary obligation to
> make
> > informed decisions that serve the public interest.   If they fail, one
> could
> > appeal to the California Attorney General's Office who over-sees
> California
> > nonprofits.  One could also complain to the US Federal government
> because of
> > ICANN's 501(c)(3) tax status it must be meet certain standards of
> > accountability and public benefit.   And ICANN can be sued in legal
> courts,
> > most easily in California, just like any other nonprofit corporation for
> > breach of its legal obligations.
> > Robin
> >
> > 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
> >
> >
> >