ICANN staff repudiates community call for change on Morality & Public Order

[Robin Gross]

ICANN staff has (again) thrown out the consensus of the community in the Rec6 Working Group on Morality & Public Order of new gtlds and decided to institute its own policy - one concerned only with "risk management" to ICANN (i.e. cheap insurance & lawsuits).  So all of the important public interest points that NCSG and ALAC were able to get into the policy have been unilaterally thrown out by staff.  Even Leibovitch from ALAC has written a good summarization of this tragedy - see below.    We'll need to dust-off the campaign equipment on this issue.   It is huge: a gigantic power grab by ICANN policy staff against the entire community.

Robin


On Nov 15, 2010, at 8:15 AM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:

> 
> FYI - sent 3AM this morning.
> 
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Evan Leibovitch <evan at telly.org>
> Date: 15 November 2010 03:15
> Subject: ICANN staff repudiates community call for change on Morality & Public Order
> To: ICANN GTLD WG list <gtld-wg at atlarge-lists.icann.org>, ICANN ALAC list <alac at atlarge-lists.icann.org>
> 
> 
> Hello everyone,
> 
> In the latest version of the new gTLD Applicant Guidebook, ICANN staff has essentially screwed its community.
> 
> Despite broad agreement reached across members of the GAC, GNSO and At-Large on issues related to Morality and Public Order -- and a report that was unanimously endorsed by ALAC -- ICANN staff have explicitly rejected all of our basic requests. Literally, only the most cosmetic -- changing the name from "Morality and Public Order" to "Limited Public Interest" -- approach was taken.
> 
> The sub-contracted Dispute Resolution Service Provider -- now renamed the Dispute Resolution Administrartor -- still exists, and many, many other changes have been rejected. Not ignored, but explicitly rejected by staff.
> 
> Here is the redlined version of the new document:
> http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/draft-dispute-resolution-procedures-redline-12nov10-en.pdf
> 
> And here is the staff "explanatory notes"
> http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/explanatory-memo-morality-public-order-12nov10-en.pdf
> 
> This is awful on so many levels. It asserts staff supremacy over the bottom up process. It repudiates everything that ICANN claims to want in its improvements of Accountability and Transparency. It asserts that on any disagreement between staff and community, that staff should prevail.
> 
> I am REALLY REALLY upset over this. This is an instance in which the GAC and ALAC were united in opposition to this completely odious piece of policy, and staff have literally shrugged it off in the name is "risk management". The only risk I see is the risk to ICANN policy staff making a mockery of every principle ICANN *claims* to want to uphold.
> 
> I am angry enough to want ALAC to go beyond merely announcing its displeasure to the Board. I encourage everyone to real Milton Mueller's blog entry at http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2010/11/14/4679990.html while contemplating what action to take.
> 
> If we don't stand up for this, what is there to stand up for? ICANN created At-Large to provide input on some of its most important policy and -- now that we have provided it, in concert with other ICANN stakeholders -- its staff have laughed it off.
> 
> How strongly is At-Large going to fight this disgrace? What are the candidates for Director going to propose? Where would the ATRT stand on a process by which stakeholders can be stopped in their tracks by staff, which has threatened to drag out the process longer should we complain and make us the scapegoats of all the TLD applicants waiting for their chance?
> 
> This is truly disgusting.
> 
> - Evan
> 
> 




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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