[governance] ccTLD regulation [WAS Re: Statement made in Plenary]

[Lee McKnight]

Hi,

I agree with Michael.

I have been trying to point CS folks in this direction for some time,
both for the reasons Michael states and for the very Realpolitik that it
is already US policy, ie in NTIA's June statement of principles, that
ccTLDs are a matter that sovereign nations have a right to be involved
in managing, one way or another. So this is not tilting at windmills, it
is figuring out how to pass through an open door.

It's fun to bash ICANN, and be shocked that it is far less than perfect
and vested interests have too much influence, and it could have been
done better etc etc, but Id much rather have a gradually and belatedly
improved ICANN than a UN General Assembly-regulated Internet names
monopoly council.  The inevitable corruption in that type of
Bits-for-Food program...well there's an Internet bubble worth getting in
on early! : )  

In sum, we should figure out a position that gives governments what
they legitimately deserve, even if they don't actually own their TLD as
Michael notes.  But CS should know better than to expect reasonable
treatment of CS interests if the game is given to governments, as recent
experience demonstrates yet again. Even if CS is outside the locked
doors of government negoiators, by sorting out a reasonable compromise
that works, CS can as we have seen, have impact on the government
negotiators who will have a couple days in November to reach closure, or
walk away with everyone grumbling about the failure to achieve raised
expectations.  Not that the game will end in November, but it hopefully
can move on to a different playing field with a new set of guidelines.

Lee





Prof. Lee W. McKnight
School of Information Studies
Syracuse University
+1-315-443-6891office
+1-315-278-4392 mobile

>>> froomkin at law.miami.edu 10/03/05 11:10 AM >>>
Well, since you ask...

Goodness knows that no one is currently more removed from what is
really 
going on behind the scenes at WSIS than I.  But from a distance, the
most 
meritorious concern that governments have is the idea that regulation
of 
'their' ccTLD would in some way be constrained by US/California law.

Let me start by saying that in fact I don't accept, as a theoretical 
matter, the idea that a ccTLD 'belongs' to a government.  Details are
in 
When We Say US(TM), We Mean It!, 41 Hous. L. Rev. 839 (2004), available
at 
www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/articles/ccTLDs-TM.pdf, so I won't repeat 
those arguments here.

But, working from realpolitik considerations, it seems to me that 
giving ccTLD regulation to the ITU or some purpose-made body makes a 
degree of sense.  Certainly more sense, anyway, that it does for gTLDs
(a 
group that in my view of the world includes so-called sTLDs). The
issues 
about recognition of appropriate delegates of ccTLDs (cf. .iq) are
often 
very different from the issues of what company is qualified to run a
TLD 
and what the string might be.  They involve very difference
competencies 
and have different sorts of political and even economic implications. 
Arguably, they require different sorts of accountability mechanisms
too, 
and those are primarily either internal to the country that claims the

2-letter TLD, or truly international.  And both those things are very 
different from a gTLD.

I could say even more if you required, but I think that's the essence.

It also seems to me that as a compromise position this offers something

for almost everyone...

On Mon, 3 Oct 2005, Veni Markovski wrote:

> At 10:44 03-10-2005 -0400, Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law
wrote:
>> Isn't the best solution to split off the regulation of ccTLDs for
>> just this reason?
>
> Can you say more on that, please?
>
>

-- 
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