ICANN

[Steve]

x-no-archive: yes

======================

Critics See Internet Board Overstepping Its Authority

Jeri Clausing
NY Times 6/7/99


They were mysteriously appointed, they meet behind closed doors and
they have questionable public accountability. Yet members of the
interim board of the Internet's new oversight body are beginning to
make decisions and shape policy that could ultimately affect everyone
who uses the global network. 

To finance the $5.9 million annual budget of the oversight body, the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, this
temporary board has voted to levy a $1 a year tax on the more than
four million Internet addresses, or domain names, that end in .com,
.net and .org. The board is also planning to impose tens of
thousands of dollars in licensing and other fees on companies that
want to get into the business of dispensing Internet addresses.
Recently, the board endorsed controversial recommendations for
establishing a new global framework for resolving disputes over who
can and cannot use certain words in their Internet addresses. 

Esther Dyson, the chairwoman of the interim board, which was set up
last year, says the group is carrying out its government-mandated
charge to break up the current monopoly in Internet name
registration and to move Internet governance to the private sector. 

But critics say the board is overstepping its authority and ignoring
another mandate -- to create a transparent, bottoms-up organization.
Instead, they say, the board is working behind the scenes with
powerful international corporate and government interests to create
a top-down hierarchy that flies in the face of the free-wheeling,
consensus-based spirit that built the Internet. 

Such sentiments are but the latest chapter in yearslong sniping
fueled by international jealousies and myriad conspiracy theories.
What is different now, some observers say, is that the Internet,
which is built on a cooperative technology for routing data around
the globe is in less stable hands -- increasing the risk that angry
factions will in effect secede from the network, damaging its
integrity by splitting it into several smaller, disconnected
networks. 

Although such a split is considered unlikely, anxiety over who is
running the show could curb investments in the rapidly growing
electronic commerce industry. 

"The risks are that Icann has a little bit of authority but very
little legitimacy," said Bill Whyman, an Internet analyst for the
Legg Mason investment company in Washington. "This is an awkward
consensus-building process. If it pushes too far and causes itself
to lose support among key constituencies, Icann itself can be
undercut. Then you have a very bad situation with no one in control.
Then you have a very bad situation for e-commerce." 

Icann was created last year by one of the Internet's founding
fathers, Jon Postel, as the Clinton administration moved to complete
the privatization of the Internet. The U.S. government, which
financed the creation of the Internet over several decades, had begun
privatizing the network in 1995 by turning over responsibility for
domain name registration -- that is, the assigning of Internet
addresses -- to a Virginia-based company, Network Solutions Inc. 

But as Network Solutions' lucrative government-sanctioned monopoly
became increasingly controversial, the administration made it a top
priority to introduce competition into the registration business --
while also transferring oversight of the Internet to a private
international body. While a Commerce Department report last June
mapped out the principles and goals for such a body, there were very
few specifics spelled out. 

Icann was set up as a nonprofit organization by Postel, a computer
scientist at the University of Southern California who for years
administered the address numbering system behind Internet domain
names. But he died unexpectedly shortly after the interim board was
named last fall, turning unanswered questions about how he selected
the members into something of an Internet mystery. 

Whatever its origins, the interim board now has nine members -- plus
the corporation's temporary president, Michael Roberts. In addition
to Ms. Dyson, a well-known Internet analyst, publisher and
entrepreneur, the board includes telecommunications executives and
academics from the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin
America. 

Though the interim board had been expected to set up the procedures
for building up a broad-based Icann membership that might elect a
full-time board, the interim group has itself become a policy-making
body. 

Some critics say Icann pushed too far last month in Berlin, when it
endorsed in principle recommendations of a report from the World
Intellectual Property Organization for cracking down on
cybersquatters, the speculators who register and then try to resell
popular domain names, and for resolving disputes over who has the
right to trademarks registered as Internet addresses. 

The board referred the report to Icann's domain name committee,
which is to recommend ways to meet the goals. But to many, the deck
seems stacked in favor of big corporations and trademark holders
since a key part of that committee -- members representing
noncommercial name holders -- has not yet been appointed by the
board. Icann has yet to appoint the at-large members who will elect
half of the permanent board. 

Until a board is elected, Icann is largely responsible only to the
Commerce Department, which endorsed its creation and is pushing for
quick establishment of dispute-resolution mechanisms so that Icann
can set up full-scale competition in the registration business. 

"There is a lot of pressure to introduce competition," said A.
Michael Froomkin, a University of Miami law professor who was on the
panel of experts that advised the World Intellectual Property
Organization, an arm of the United Nations, in its drafting of the
report. 

In response to that pressure, Froomkin says, voicing a common
criticism, Icann is "going fast on the decision making instead of
going faster on doing the setting up" of an elected board. 

Ms. Dyson, however, says Icann is caught between special interest
groups: noisy critics crying for the board to slow down and quieter
interests with a large stake in the process, who are insisting that
the board move faster, particularly to resolve disputes over domain
names and trademarks. 

"It's frustrating to hear 'Let's go slow; let's go fast,"' she said.
"I just want to hear legitimate criticism of what we may or may not
do. Let's argue it on the merits." 

Among those leading the charge to put the brakes on Icann's policy
making is Network Solutions, which built the international registry
for top level domains like .com, .net and .org under its exclusive
government contract. It also controls the main server, the so-called
root of the Internet, for the global network and built a $25 million
shared registry system that is currently being tested with five
companies. The first of those companies, Register.com, will begin
competing with Network Solutions on Monday. 

But Network Solutions is still negotiating with the Commerce
Department on terms for permanently opening up its registry, the
data base of all registered domains, to competitors. The company has
refused to apply to become an official Icann registrar when
full-scale competition is opened. The company says Icann's licensing
terms give the governance body too much regulatory authority,
including the ability to cancel a company's accreditation -- and
thus its business -- at whim. 

Network Solutions argues that the interim board should be doing
nothing more than setting minimum technical standards for the
competing registries. 

"They have turned what is supposed to be a standards-setting body
into a regulatory commission," said Donald L. Telage, the company's
senior vice president.

Executives from Network Solutions have taken their case to Capitol
Hill, where they were working feverishly last week to persuade key
members to hold oversight hearings on the actions of both Icann and
the Commerce Department. 

Ms. Dyson and Becky Burr, a senior Commerce Department adviser who
is overseeing the formation of Icann, declined to comment on Network
Solutions' complaints, citing their continued talks with the
company.

To be sure, Network Solutions has a great incentive to protect the
monopoly it has enjoyed since 1995. But the company is not alone in
questioning the interim board's authority for setting permanent
policies. 

"It's a real tricky game," said Dave Farber, a professor of computer
science at the University of Pennsylvania and a board member of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Internet civil liberties group.
"You may want an interim agreement, but I don't think that the
interim board should put in place anything that is not revocable." 

He added: "I believe that the mandate that they were given was to
form a stable organization representative in some way or another of a
community. I don't think they should be making critical decisions
that they don't have to." 

The elected board is not expected to be in place until next spring,
and Ms. Dyson said she expected that the decision on adding new
domains would be delayed until then. She and her board dismiss much
of the criticism as merely a continuation of the contentious debate
that has been part of this process for three years. But many critics
say the board has brought much of the skepticism on itself. 

The paucity of details about how the interim board was created has
fostered an Internet conspiracy theory that the board is carrying out
a hidden agenda. 

Ms. Dyson takes strong exception to such theories. 

"When they asked me, they did not ask me to do anything in
particular," she said of her being asked to serve on Icann. "I do not
represent corporate interests; I represent the little guy." 

Adding to the mistrust, however, was the board's refusal to hold open
board meetings. 

"Whenever you do things in a smoke-filled room," Farber said, "even
if you are the most honest people in the world, people will suspect
you are not honest." 

Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company 





* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  From the Listowner  * * * * * * * * * * * *
.	To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to:
majordomo at scn.org		In the body of the message, type:
unsubscribe scn
==== Messages posted on this list are also available on the web at: ====
* * * * * * *     http://www.scn.org/volunteers/scn-l/     * * * * * * *