From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2001 11:44 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Policy Post 7.12: Department of Commerce Selects .us Operator
CDT POLICY POST Volume 7, Number 12, November 1, 2001
A BRIEFING ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES AFFECTING CIVIL
LIBERTIES ONLINE
from
THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY
CONTENTS:
(1) Department of Commerce Selects .us Operator
(2) Net Managing Body Likely To Focus on Security, Delay Public
Input Decision
(3) Study Recommendations Raise Questions, Limit User Voice
(4) ICANN Requires Limits To Its Authority, Real Accountability
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE SELECTS .us OPERATOR
The U.S. Department of Commerce has selected NeuStar, Inc., as
the new registry operator for the .us Internet domain. Like .com and
.org, .us is a space on the Internet in which web pages and other
resources are located. But unlike those globally-oriented domains,
.us is intended to be exclusively for Internet resources that are
American in nature.
The Department of Commerce's announcement is the culmination
of a proceeding that began in June 2001. At that time, CDT joined a
coalition of concerned non-profit groups, companies, community
groups, and government agencies to advocate responsible, fair
policy-making practices for .us. The coalition proposed to
cooperate with the .us registry operator to create a .us "Policy
Development Council" (usPDC) that would include a broad
diversity of perspectives, to help resolve difficult policy questions.
While NeuStar has indicated a willingness to implement good
policy practices in .us, it has not yet committed to any specific
course of action, or to cooperation with any of the partners in the
usPDC coalition. Over the next few weeks, CDT and its coalition
partners hope to work with NeuStar and the Commerce Department
to ensure that .us's policy processes are in keeping with democratic
values.
On November 11, the House Energy and Commerce Committee
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held a
hearing substantially focused on the .us proceeding and specifically
on the possibility of creating a .kids or .kids.us domain for
child-friendly material. CDT issued a letter raising questions about
whether .kids could be properly and fairly implemented.
Additional information about the Commerce Department's
award of .us is available at:
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/usca/index.html.
CDT's letter to the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the
Internet regarding the proposed .kids legislation is available at:
http://www.cdt.org/dns/011031dotkids.shtml.
More information is available at: http://www.cdt.org/dns/.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(2) NET MANAGING BODY LIKELY TO FOCUS ON SECURITY, DELAY
PUBLIC INPUT DECISION
The group that manages some of the Internet's most critical
functions has indicated that it will delay a long-scheduled decision
on how (and whether) Internet users will have a voice in policy
discussions that affect the Internet worldwide.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) manages the naming and addressing systems that make
the Internet run smoothly and reliably. ICANN also makes important
policy decisions like adding new domains to the Internet -- such as
the recently-activated .info and .biz -- or maintaining trademark
protections online. CDT strongly believes that the broad impact
of ICANN's policy powers creates a need for Internet users to be
strongly represented in ICANN's processes.
The question of public participation has been a defining one since
ICANN's creation in 1998. ICANN's Board since then has been
dominated by Internet companies and other private actors who do
not have the mission of representing the public interest, and the
public role in ICANN, while frequently alluded to, has not been
defined in any of ICANN's organizational documents.
The Board was expected to resolve this question at its upcoming
annual meeting in Marina del Rey, California, on November 12-15.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, however, it has indicated
that it will not do so, and will instead change its agenda to focus
on issues of security. ICANN has also asked that its stakeholder
constituencies be prepared to make their own reports on how they
are promoting security in the Internet's core systems.
Security of the Internet's naming and addressing systems is one of
ICANN's most important and appropriate responsibilities, and CDT
believes this is a fitting time for ICANN to take up the issue.
However, the ICANN Board and the entire ICANN community must
resist the urge to allow such immediate issues to derail other
long-standing and important questions. ICANN must commit itself
soon to resolving too-long-outstanding questions about the
public's interest in Internet policy.
Information on the November meeting of the ICANN Board:
http://www.icann.org/mdr2001/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(3) STUDY RECOMMENDATIONS RAISE QUESTIONS, LIMIT USER
VOICE
Last year, the ICANN Board commissioned a study to examine
issues of public participation, stating that it would make its decision
when that study was complete. That study group (known as the
At-Large Study Committee (ALSC)) released a short initial report
in early September; a final report is due in November.
The ALSC's September draft report would greatly restrict users'
participation in ICANN. Most troublingly, the ALSC recommended
that the number of publicly-elected seats on ICANN's nineteen-
member Board be reduced from the current nine to six. This
reduction would mean that all ICANN policy decisions, no matter
how sweeping (even including changes to ICANN's basic mission
and authorities), could be passed by corporate and technical
representatives over the unanimous objection of the Board's
publicly-elected Directors.
The report also recommended that voting rights in ICANN be limited
to owners of Internet domain names and payment of some
not-yet-described membership fee. In CDT's view, ICANN affects
all users of the Internet, not just those who own domain names. By
limiting the public voice in ICANN, the ALSC recommendations
would put ICANN beyond the control of the people affected most
by ICANN's activities. In CDT's opinion, such an approach would
threaten the Internet's openness and empowering potential.
Membership fees pose the danger of disenfranchising Internet
users from the developing world.
These and other recommendations by the ALSC stand in contrast
to the conclusions of the NGO and Academic ICANN Study, an
independent, international study of ICANN (of which CDT was a
member). The NAIS report, issued in June 2001, advocated a more
open, responsive vision of ICANN in which voting rights are
available to all Internet users with an interest in participating and
who have verifiable e-mail and postal addresses. The NAIS report
recommended an ICANN Board of Directors that balances private
technical and professional interests with elected representatives
of the public interest.
The ICANN ALSC draft report is online at http://atlargestudy.org/
The NAIS report is online at http://www.naisproject.org/report/final/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(4) ICANN REQUIRES LIMITS TO ITS AUTHORITY, REAL
ACCOUNTABILITY
Since hundreds of millions of users depend on ICANN-managed
systems for smooth Internet access, ICANN's potential authority to
affect the Internet as a whole is very broad. Right now, there are no
effective controls to keep ICANN from abusing that authority some
time in the future. CDT believes that, if ICANN is to safely serve the
global Internet community, its activities must be constrained to the
technical management for which it was designed.
These constraints should include:
* changes to the ICANN bylaws and to its charter that would
affirmatively prevent ICANN from venturing into obvious
policy-making;
* an independent review panel, empowered to monitor and even
overturn ICANN decisions that are contrary to the best interests
of the Internet;
* strong statements of Internet users' rights before ICANN, such
as the right to be free of ICANN interference in matters of free
expression or privacy.
These and other steps were recommended by CDT and
Common Cause in a joint report issued in March 2000:
http://www.cdt.org/dns/study.shtml
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Policy Post 7.12 Copyright 2001 Center for Democracy and
Technology
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