IP: More on Magaziner

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/11/cyber/articles/06magaziner.html

Magaziner, Head of U.S. Internet Policy, Plans to Resign
By JERI CLAUSING[] 

ASHINGTON -- Ira C. Magaziner, who has led the Clinton Administration's efforts
to foster the growth of the Internet and electronic commerce, said today that
he plans to leave the White House before the end of the year. 

...

Magaziner has also been leading the contentious effort to move administration
of the Internet from U.S. government oversight to an international, nonprofit
corporation. 

That function has been administered by the United States government -- at first
directly, and in recent years under a government contract granting a
registration monopoly to Network Solutions, a corporation based in Herndon, Va.


A driving force toward creation of the new board was the demand by private
companies around the world that they be allowed to compete with Network
Solutions in the lucrative business of registering domain names. 
But finding a solution that balances the interests of more traditional,
academic institutions with trademark holders and commercial entities with a
huge stake in the future of electronic commerce proved difficult, and much
controversy remains over the plan that Magaziner hopes to finalize this month. 

Last month, the Administration tenatively approved handing the reins of the
Internet over to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN). 

The corporation was set up largely under the direction of one of the Internet's
founders, the late Jon Postel. Although the ICANN proposal was presented as
having "the support of a broad consensus of Internet stakeholders, private and
public," several groups have complained that it was hammered out in secret and
still lacks proper fiscal controls and appropriate power checks on future board
members. 
The Department of Commerce has asked the nine-member interim board of ICANN to
craft new bylaws that address those concerns, a proposal that is expected to be
completed within the next week and which will be the topic of a public meeting
next week in Cambridge, Mass.