[council] Verisign on Names Council

[Thomas Roessler <roessler@does-not-exist.org>]

The members of the council may wish to read Verisign's response to  
Touton's analysis of the WLS proposal, available at 
<http://www.icann.org/minutes/response-vgrs-wls-21apr02.htm>.

In particular, the following section may be considered kind of 
relevant to the council's deliberations on ICANN structure:

>DNSO Involvement
>
>   * The General Counsel's analysis refers to the WLS being 
>     considered by the Names Council Transfer Task Force. VGRS does 
>     not believe that the terms of reference of the NC Transfer Task 
>     Force have anything to do with the WLS nor was the WLS ever 
>     discussed by this task force.
>
>   * The DNSO is supposed to deal with substantive policy as related  
>     to the DNS. Even if the WLS involved substantive policy (VGRS 
>     believes it does not), an argument could be made that the Names 
>     Council has failed to fulfill its role of managing the consensus 
>     process but has rather tried to become the consensus making body 
>     itself. Moreover, if substantial decisions are going to be based 
>     on NC recommendations, and if that is done because the NC is  
>     supposed to be representative of most affected stakeholders, 
>     then there should be an effort to validate whether or not the 
>     DNSO constituencies actually do represent the constituencies 
>     they claim to represent. If they do not, then it becomes a very 
>     flawed approach to let the NC significantly influence decisions, 
>     policy or otherwise.
>
>   * The WLS was discussed in the GA meeting in Accra and an  
>     opportunity for questions was provided to the audience. No 
>     questions were asked.

Regards,	     
-- 
Thomas Roessler                          http://log.does-not-exist.org/