IP: Nader/CPT Proposals for ICANN

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

> Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 12:16:25 -0400
> From: James Love <love () cptech org>
>
> To: "Farber, David" <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
>
> Dave, these are the proposals referred to in today's
> Cybertimes Article by Jerry Clausing (from the 
> CPSR workshop on ICANN).
>
> Jamie
>
> --------
> The following are proposals presented by Ralph Nader to "Governing
> the Commons: The Future of Global Internet Administration," a
> conference organized by Computer Professionals for Social
> Responsibility, September 24-25, 1999, in Alexandria, Virginia.
>
>
>            A framework for ICANN and DNS Management
>
>                        Initial Proposals
>                       (comments welcome)
>
>                          version 1.02
>
>                       September 25, 1999*
>
> 1.   ICANN's authority should be based upon a multilateral
>     government charter. That Charter should define and limit
>     ICANN's authority.
>
> 2.   The charter should be based upon a limited purpose sui
>     generis agreement among countries that express interest in
>     working together, and that agree that ICANN's role should be
>     limited to tasks essential to maintaining an efficient and
>     reliable DNS management, and that ICANN will not be used as
>     an instrument to promote policies relating to conduct or
>     content on the Internet. (Additional multilateral
>     institutions may be desired to address electronic commerce
>     issues, but ICANN itself should not become the foundation
>     for a vast Internet governance institution. See
>     http://www.cptech.org/ecom/cpt-wcpo.html)
>
> 3.   ICANN should not use its power over domain registration
>     policy to exclude persons from the use of a domain on issues
>     that are not germane to managing the DNS system of mapping
>     IP addresses into domain names. The right to have a domain
>     on the Internet should be considered the same as the right
>     to have a street address, a telephone number or a person's
>     name.
>
> 4.   ICANN should identify a membership and elect its board of
>     directors from its membership before it makes additional
>     policy decisions (in those areas appropriate for action by
>     ICANN).
>
> 5.   Membership should be open to anyone who uses the Internet.
>     There should be no fee associated with membership or voting
>     rights.
>
> 6.   The records of ICANN should be open to the public. The
>     public should have rights to documents as, similiar to
>     rights provided in the US Freedom of Information Act.
>
> 7.   The meetings of ICANN should be open to the public.
>
> 8.   The public should be given an annual opportunity to review
>     and comment on the ICANN budget.
>
> 9.   The Budget of ICANN should be subject to review by the
>     countries that provide the ICANN charter. Fees associated
>     with domain registration should only be spent on activities
>     essential to the management of the DNS system.
>
> 10.  National governments should be permitted to exercise
>     discretion over policies relating to the use of country top
>     level domains (.fr, .uk, .us, etc).
>
> 11.  For generic top level domains (.com, .org, .net, and new
>     gTLDs), the domain space should be declared a public
>     resource. The registrar or registries perform services on
>     behalf of the users of the domains, and will not own the
>     domain space. It should be possible to replace firms engaged
>     in registration services and DNS management, without risking
>     the stability of the Internet.
>
> 12.  On matters of public interest (in the narrow areas where
>     ICANN will operate), such as policies regarding the use of
>     trademarks or the privacy of domain registration
>     information, ICANN should make recommendations to the sui
>     generis multinational body created to manage ICANN, and the
>     multinational body should accept, reject or modify the
>     recommendations, after giving the public a fully adequate
>     opportunity to review and comment on the proposals.
>
> 13.  On the issue of trademarks, the Charter should explicitly
>     protect the public's rights to parody, criticism and free
>     speech. For example, domain names like GM-sucks.com, which
>     would not be confused with GM.com, should be permitted.
>
>
>
> *Corrected
>
> Comments to James Love, love () cptech org or Ralph Nader,
> > ralph () essential org.
> --
> James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
> I can be reached at love () cptech org, by telephone 202.387.8030,
> by fax at 202.234.5176. CPT web page is http://www.cptech.org