IP: Public Interest Groups Decry .us "Sell-Off"

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Alan Davidson <abd () cdt org>
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 18:27:26 -0400
To: farber () cis upenn edu


Dave - I thought IP readers might be interested in the attached
letter sent today by CDT, along with Common Cause and the Media
Access Project, raising concerns about the sell-off of .us
second-level domain names last week.

Regards,

    Alan

Alan Davidson, Associate Director            202.637.9800 (v)
Center for Democracy and Technology          202.637.0968 (f)
1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 1100                  <abd () cdt org>
Washington, DC 20006                         http://www.cdt.org


----------------

The Honorable Ernest F. Hollings
United States Senate

The Honorable John McCain
United States Senate

The Honorable W.J. "Billy" Tauzin
U.S. House of Representatives

The Honorable John D. Dingell
U.S. House of Representatives

April 29, 2002

Dear Chairman Hollings, Senator McCain, Chairman Tauzin and Rep. Dingell:

We are writing to express our grave concern over recent developments
in the .us Internet domain. Last week, unbeknownst to most Americans,
a major "sell-off" was held for domain names in .us, such as
churches.us. Thousands of names - many of which are of significant
public interest - were sold off based on flawed policies developed
with almost no public input or public accountability. We urge you, as
part of your oversight responsibilities, to hold hearings
investigating this matter.

The .us domain is America's one and only country code - a uniquely
American resource and public asset on the Internet. While .us has not
been widely used by consumers to date, the Commerce Department's
decision to delegate the domain to a new operator last year held out
the promise to reinvigorate .us and make it more useful to individual
and business users. It also held out the promise of a place on the
Internet directly related to US activities, where, for example,
American churches might register a name in churches.us or where
American consumers could find non-profit groups in charities.us.

Policies for .us must be developed in a way that includes the
interests of American Internet users. Many of the companies that
competed for the .us contract committed to building structures of
outreach and representation for that purpose. NeuStar, the company
ultimately granted the .us domain, itself promised to "develop open
policies and procedures with a high degree of responsiveness and
accountability to the usTLD community."

That promise has not been met. Among the most serious causes for
concern in last week's sell-off of .us names:

* The public was virtually unaware of the .us sell-off. The American
Internet community is the world's largest and most active, yet, with
the exception of dedicated name speculators and other savvy buyers,
the general public was almost entirely uninformed about the .us
redelegation and re-opening. This lack of awareness permitted .us to
become a lucrative business opportunity for those "in the know" at
the expense of the public good.

* The policies set for .us harm the public interest. The preliminary
ground rules for .us have a critical impact on American consumers.
However, NeuStar has crafted rules without consultation with, or even
notice to, most consumers. Nearly all registration occurs on a
"first-come/first-served" basis, with the exception of a "sunrise"
period for trademark holders (one of the few public policy
requirements made by the Department of Commerce). In the absence of
controls, the first-come/first-served policy has led to an Internet
"land rush" for the most desirable names and a general lack of
structure in .us.

* The .us "reserved name" policy is arbitrary and deeply flawed.
NeuStar did prevent the registration this week of 51,922 domains on
its "reserved names" list, presumably to achieve some future public
purpose or avoid conflicts. But this controversial list was created
behind closed doors and ignores a number of important public
interests. For example:

o Many valuable names were unreserved, and were snapped up by private
parties who may not recognize, or who may seek to profit from, their
public importance. For example, names like church.us, nonprofit.us,
yellowstone.us, music.us, freespeech.us, bank.us and even art.us were
not reserved. They are now in the hands of private parties, removing
hopes of creating a more structured use of those names, and giving
those parties control over how valued American institutions or assets
are perceived online.

o NeuStar's plans for some reserved names, such as work.us or
person.us, are unknown, and the public had no voice in their
selection.

o Some politically significant names were reserved but not others. Both
georgewbush.us and laurabush.us were reserved, but tomdaschle.us and
trentlott.us were not and are now registered to name speculators.
military.us was reserved but not customs.us (now registered to a
speculator). And though tax.us is reserved, environment.us was not
(now registered to a speculator).

* American consumer interests have been largely excluded from the .us
policy process. Although NeuStar agreed in its contract that the
diverse American Internet community would be included in
policy-making for .us, that has not been true to date. A "Policy
Advisory Council" was announced only just last week, and has
apparently not been consulted on any of the major policy decisions
already made for .us. Moreover, that Council is heavily skewed away
from individual consumer interests, with only one identifiable
consumer voice (the American Library Association, which also
represents legacy library users) appointed. As constituted, the
Council is dominated by commercial and operator interests.


America's .us Internet domain space is a national resource of
significant value. It should not be managed without respect for the
public's interests. We believe in marketplace mechanisms, but there
also must be a role for the public's interests in the management of
public resources like the .us domain. And while it will be very
difficult to roll back the sell-off of .us domains that occurred last
week, we think it is essential that a process be put in place to
include public input and accountability in future .us management.

We urge you to actively continue your oversight on this matter and
look forward to working with you to promote the interests of all
Americans online.


Sincerely,


Jerry Berman
Executive Director
Center for Democracy and Technology

Scott Harshbarger
President
Common Cause

Andrew J. Schwartzman
President/CEO
Media Access Project



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