ICANN under scrutiny?

Thu Sep 17 20:53:29 CEST 2009

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090916_9990.php

Republican lawmakers want answers from ICANN
BY ANDREW NOYES, CONGRESSDAILY 09/16/2009
Two of the House Judiciary Committee's top Republicans wrote to the new head
of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers on Tuesday to
express concerns about the proposed introduction of many new top-level
domains -- such as .biz, .info, and .us -- and the expiration later this
month of a memo formally joining the Commerce Department and the
California-based entity that administers the world's Web addresses.

In their letter to ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom, Judiciary ranking member Lamar
Smith and Courts and Competition Subcommittee ranking member Howard Coble,
R-N.C., said they are worried that a vast expansion of domains will carry
"serious negative consequences" for U.S. businesses and consumers. The U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and others have
complained that adding hundreds of new domains could exacerbate
cyber-squatting, fraud, and overall confusion in the Internet marketplace.

Smith and Coble said the absence of price caps in the new registry deals
could mean that legitimate businesses could be discriminated against and
asked to pay a premium for each domain they register or renew. ICANN, which
has said it plans to begin accepting applications for new domains in early
2010, could bring in an initial $90 million from the plan, according to some
estimates. The letter argued the only economic justification put forth so
far is an ICANN-commissioned report that has been criticized for failing to
include empirical data to support of its claim that the project will benefit
consumers.

Given the late consideration of intellectual property concerns and ICANN's
"less than stellar track record," Smith and Coble said they have "serious
misgivings" about the scheduled expiration later this month of a joint
project agreement between the U.S. government and ICANN. ICANN leaders have
claimed that, after 10 years in business, the nonprofit is ready for its
independence but a number of lawmakers -- Democrats and Republicans alike --
aren't so sure. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman and
Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., last month called
for the creation of a permanent relationship.

Smith and Coble ask Beckstrom to provide detailed answers by Sept. 22 to
several questions about the domain name expansion and the termination of the
joint project agreement.

Proponents of the domain name expansion take a different view. Richard
Tindal, senior vice president of registry at eNom, argues that new domains
will be safer space for trademarks. As part of the proposed process,
safeguards are being built into the registry selection process and the
registry/registrar contracts. Additionally, ICANN is likely to adopt
significant portions of the recommendations for trademark protections
offered by a committee of trademark experts, he said.

Tindal claims the amount of traffic and cyber-squatting won't increase
significantly with new domains and could actually decrease. "There is only
so much Internet traffic and so many cyber-squatter dollars available at any
given point in time. Doubling the number of [domains] will not double the
amount of cyber-squatting," he said. Furthermore, the recent introduction of
country code top-level domains and vanity names (e.g. Facebook) demonstrates
that once new domains are introduced, "there will be widespread consumer
adoption," he predicted.

On 16/09/2009 22:00, "Robin Gross" <robin at IPJUSTICE.ORG> wrote:

> Dear All,
> 
> The NCUC Annual Election is in progress and nominations have closed, and the
> final ballot has been sent to the good folks at .nic for entering into their
> online election system.
> 
> Below is the final slate of candidates on the ballot.
> 
> The voting period will begin 19 Sept. 2009 at 00:00 UTC.
> The voting period will end 26 Sept. 2009 at 00:00 UTC.
> 
> You should receive an email at the beginning of the voting period with
> instructions on how to cast your votes.
> 
> Candidates in the election are encouraged to submit a statement or bio to this
> list (or to the website election page <http://ncdnhc.org/page/elections-1> ).
> 
> I apologize for the delay regarding the dates of the online vote, but all is
> in motion now, so look for your ballot in your email on Saturday (this
> weekend).
> 
> Thanks,
> Robin
> 
> NCUC Annual Election for 2009
> 
> Voting Period: 19-26 September 2009
> 
> SELECT 1 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REGION IN EACH REGION:
> 
> NCUC Executive Committee (1-year term):
> 
> Africa
> Rafik Dammak
> Alex Gakuru
> David Kissoondoyal
> 
> Asia
> David Cake
> 
> Europe
> Konstantinos Komaitis
> Cedric Laurant
> 
> North America
> Brenden Kuerbis 
> 
> South America
> Gabriel Pineiro
> Carlos Affonso de Souza
> 
> SELECT 1 GNSO COUNCILOR FROM ANY REGION
> 
> GNSO Council (2-year term):
> Rafik Dammak (Africa)
> Konstantinos Komaitis (Europe)
> Wendy Seltzer (North America)
> Rudi Vansnick (Europe)
> 
> 
> SELECT 1 CONSTITUENCY CHAIR:
> 
> NCUC Chair (1-year term):
> Robin Gross
> 
> 
> 
> APPROVAL OF CHARTER REVISIONS:
> 
> Do you approve of the NCUC Charter revisions proposed by the Executive
> Committee? Viewable at:
> http://ipjustice.org/ICANN/NCSG/NCUC/NCUC-Charter-Revisions-Sep-09.pdf
> 
> 
> 2009 NCUC Election Time-Table:
> 4 Sept: Nominations opened
> 12 Sept: Nominations closed
> 19 Sept: Voting Begins 00:00 UTC
> 26 Sept: Voting Ends  00:00 UTC
> 31 Oct: Term Begins
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 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
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 

-- 
Dr. Konstantinos Komaitis,
Lecturer in Law,
GigaNet Membership Chair,
University of Strathclyde,
The Lord Hope Building,
141 St. James Road,
Glasgow, G4 0LT,
UK
tel: +44 (0)141 548 4306
email: k.komaitis at strath.ac.uk 

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