<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body ><div>+1</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div style="font-size:9px;color:#575757">Sent from Samsung Mobile</div></div><br><br>-------- Original message --------<br>From: Karl Auerbach <karl@cavebear.com> <br>Date:03/05/2015 20:56 (GMT+02:00) <br>To: governance@lists.igcaucus.org <br>Subject: Re: [governance] Debunking eight myths about multi-stakeholderism <br><br><br>On 4/29/15 10:23 AM, Barry Shein wrote:<br>> Ok, let's try this then:<br>><br>> Is EFF a stakeholder?<br>No. No thing that exists merely as an abstraction of law or accounting <br>ought to be given power in the making of decisions.<br><br>EFF employs many human people who would all be proper holders of a <br>franchise to participate in the making of whatever decision is to be <br>made. Each of whom would be free to follow the EFF position or not.<br><br>EFF as an organization would, of course, be able to provide its <br>expertise - as would any other organization from the NRA to the ITU to <br>Boeing to Joe's Bar and Grill - but it would merely be proffered advice <br>and would have no weight in the making of decisions beyond its power to <br>persuade those (individual humans) or a human who has been designated by <br>those people to act on their behalf, in other words a designated <br>representative.<br><br>I am amused by how easy it is to corrupt stakeholder systems. Under <br>ICANN's rubric I have many hats in which I am a "stakeholder" and get to <br>put my replicated thumb multiple times onto the scale of decision. I <br>am, of course, a user of the internet, I own and control several <br>for-profit corporate entities, I participate in several non-profit <br>organizations, I hold domain names and IP addresses from before the era <br>of ICANN and the RIRs, I've authored full internet standards, I own <br>several trademarks and many copyrights and even some patents, I'm a <br>citizen of more than one country, and I am also an attorney (both <br>California and US Federal).<br><br>So under a system of stakeholders I get more places to stand and try to <br>project my influence than the average internet user. That, of course, <br>doesn't mean that I get my way - I tend to espouse rather liberal <br>human-over-corporation values - which clearly face huge mountains of <br>opposition. But there are others who are far more capable and <br>manipulative than I am, and have far more resources, money, and time. <br>Consider the trademark protection lobby - they are quite well funded, <br>well focused, and under the ICANN system they get, and use, multiple <br>"stakeholder" seats (as intellectual property interests, as business <br>interests, via their exaggerated influence in governments, and via the <br>"at large").<br><br>When one recognizes mental abstractions - such as the collection known <br>as EFF or the collection known as Verizon - to have the piece of the <br>power to make decisions then that reduces the power of humans. It's a <br>zero-sum game - the more we give to legal fictions, such as corporations <br>or trade groups, then the less there is for individual people.<br><br>I am reminded of some of the mud that was thrown at the ICANN elections <br>in year 2000: that some countries and large corporations were trying to <br>influence their employees to vote in certain ways, and that as a <br>consequence it was asserted that those elections were tainted. Yet <br>under the stakeholder system those same countries and corporations would <br>get actual power, actual votes - why care about the opinions of mere <br>people when the CEO can decide what is good for them?<br><br> --karl--<br><br><br><br><br>____________________________________________________________<br>You received this message as a subscriber on the list:<br> governance@lists.igcaucus.org<br>To be removed from the list, visit:<br> http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing<br><br>For all other list information and functions, see:<br> http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance<br>To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:<br> http://www.igcaucus.org/<br><br>Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t<br></body>