[ga] Policy Post 7.14: Domain Names Body Reaffirms Public Role, Without Details

["Patrick Corliss" <patrick@quad.net.au>]

From: CDT Email <info@cdt.org>
To: <policy-posts@cdt.org>
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 09:54:51 -0500
Subject: Policy Post 7.14: Domain Names Body Reaffirms Public Role, Without
Details

CDT POLICY POST Volume 7, Number 14, November 29, 2001

A BRIEFING ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES AFFECTING CIVIL
LIBERTIES ONLINE
from
THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY

CONTENTS:
(1) Domain Names Body Reaffirms Public Role, Without Details
(2) ICANN Board Acknowledges Need for Constrained Scope of
Activities
(3) Internal Restructuring Placed on ICANN's Agenda
(4) Meeting Addresses Issues of DNS, IP Address Security

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

(1) DOMAIN NAMES BODY REAFFIRMS PUBLIC ROLE, WITHOUT
DETAILS

The directors of the body responsible for technical management of
the Internet domain name system committed to holding elections
for public representatives, but left important implementation
questions unresolved. In a resolution adopted at its meeting in
Los Angeles, the Board of Directors of the Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) also refrained from
implementing the controversial recommendations of a committee
it had tasked to examine public representation. With these actions,
the Board effectively deferred making major decisions on its own
governance structure until its next public meeting in March, 2002,
in Accra, Ghana.

ICANN coordinates critical elements of the Internet's infrastructure,
including the naming and addressing systems on which online
communications rely. Since its inception in 1998, ICANN has
faced criticism for perceived shortcomings in representing the
public interest. Presently, nine of nineteen seats on the ICANN
Board of Directors are designated for "At-Large" Directors, to be
chosen by the Internet user community -- although only five have
actually been elected by users.

In November 2000, ICANN created an At-Large Study Committee
(ALSC) to make recommendations on the question of public
participation for ICANN. The ALSC's final report, released in early
November 2001, supported the concept of user participation in
ICANN, but several of its recommendations would have limited
ICANN's inclusiveness and the voice of the user community. CDT
and others questioned the report's practicality and fairness. In
particular, the ALSC recommended that voting rights in future
ICANN elections be restricted to those owning domain names
and that public representation on the Board be limited to just six
of nineteen Directors (as opposed to the current nine).

CDT opposed both of these limitations and joined an international
coalition to provide workable alternatives. The report of that coalition,
the NGO and Academic ICANN Study, is available at
http://www.naisproject.org/.

At its Marina del Rey meeting earlier this month, the ICANN Board
accepted the ALSC document as a basis for further discussion, but
importantly declined to adopt the ALSC's questionable
recommendations.

The Board also re-committed itself to a short timeline for resolving
representation issues. The terms of the five At-Large Directors
publicly elected by Internet users in 2000 are set to expire in
November 2002, and there are currently no provisions for their
replacement. The Board resolved to begin planning election
systems, and declared once again that the selection of new At-Large
Directors should take place by November of next year.

More information on ICANN and on CDT's other activities in the area
of domain names management can be found at
http://www.cdt.org/dns/.

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

(2) ICANN BOARD ACKNOWLEDGES NEED FOR CONSTRAINED
SCOPE OF ACTIVITIES

In Marina del Rey, the ICANN Board took a first step towards
acknowledging a need to place limits on the scope of its own
activities. As part of a resolution establishing a Committee on
Restructuring (see below), the ICANN Board noted that "it would
be useful... to reaffirm and clarify ICANN's limited mission for
technical management and administration."

Throughout its short history, ICANN has run the risk that it would
make policy affecting the Internet without adequate processes to
guide those policies. CDT and others have warned against the
possibility of "mission creep," the likelihood that ICANN's authority
over key resources could tempt it to enter policy areas it was
neverdesigned to handle. Already there has been some evidence
that ICANN's activities are not sufficiently limited; many observers
believe that the contracting process undertaken after last year's
selection of new global Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) was fraught
with questions about ICANN's appropriate policy role.

CDT believes that, in order to retain its legitimacy and protect the
best interests of the Internet, ICANN should take every possible
step to limit its likelihood of becoming entangled in inappropriate
policy decisions. A clear restatement of ICANN's mission -- and,
conversely, of areas not in ICANN's mission -- is necessary.

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

(3) INTERNAL RESTRUCTURING PLACED ON ICANN'S AGENDA

As the issue of public representation in ICANN has continued to
gain traction, other stakeholders have begun to complain of
deficiencies in the ICANN process. Particularly within ICANN's
most diverse stakeholder group, the Domain Name Supporting
Organization, there have been long-running debates about the
relative representation of various interests, and about the efficiency
of the DNSO process in general.

This has led to a call for ICANN to revisit its internal structures. In
Marina del Rey, the Board responded by establishing a committee
of Board members to examine the issue and to report back to the
Board at future meetings.

CDT believes that ICANN's internal structure should accurately
reflect the wide range of interests affected by ICANN's activities.
We look forward to working with ICANN on this issue, and hope
that the committee will utilize an open, transparent process that
includes the input of many throughout the Internet community.

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

(4) MEETING ADDRESSES ISSUES OF DNS, IP ADDRESS
SECURITY

With the events of September 11 in mind, much of the Marina del
Rey meeting agenda consisted of panel discussions and roundtable
meetings on improving the security of the systems under ICANN's
administration. Attendees heard from speakers such as security
experts Steve Bellovin and Bruce Schneier, U.S. government official
John Tritak of the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, and
Japanese Senior Vice Minister for Public Management, Home
Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Kenji Kosaka.

Notes of ICANN's real-time scribe and RealVideo archives of
the speakers and roundtables are available at
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/mdr2001/archive/.

CDT recognizes that security constitutes a core part of ICANN's
mission. However, as ICANN continues its work in this area, we
urge it to remain mindful of the fact that Internet security is an
extremely broad area of which ICANN plays a small, though
important, part. As it has already recognized, ICANN cannot
and should not use its authority to promote security beyond
the systems it manages.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Detailed information about online civil liberties issues may be
found at http://www.cdt.org/.

This document may be redistributed freely in full or linked to
http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_7.14.shtml.

Excerpts may be re-posted with prior permission of ari@cdt.org

Policy Post 7.14 Copyright 2001 Center for Democracy and
Technology


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