[governance] Caucus at IGF stock taking meeting

[George Sadowsky]

I have problems with the presentation of this argument.  See below.

At 7:30 PM +0530 2/3/07, Parminder wrote:
>Milton
>
>>  Who speaks for the people who pay this tax? What representation,
>>  control or accountability do domain name registrants have over the IGF?
>>  (I would suggest: none).
>
>The obvious fact is that a 'tax' is BEING collected by ICANN. We cant call
>what ICANN collects as normal service charges, because it's a monopoly
>provider with no regulation and sets its own charges.

Monopoly providers of public utilities in many countries have service 
charges, not taxes.  They may include monopoly profits, or legislated 
guaranteed rates of return, but they are service charges nonetheless. 
ICANN's charges -- to those who want domain names, not necessarily to 
those who just want access to the Internet  --  are used for the 
administration of the Domain Name System and to assure its security 
and stability.  That's a service from which we all benefit.

>  And it has the
>coercive power of excluding anyone from the Internet,

ICANN does not have the power of excluding anyone from the Internet.

>  if he or she does not
>pay up. If you are on digital territory you are in some way contributing to
>the ICANN, as per rules set by the ICANN itself.  And it does whatever with
>this collection - deciding to utilizing it for some technical governance
>tasks, and some not so technical.

Please provide examples of ICANN functions that do not contribute at 
all to the above objectives.

>
>
>The next issue is as you say 'who speaks for the people who pay this tax'
>(which is directly or indirectly all people who use the Internet). I think
>ICANN has less representative-ness of 'these people' that IGF etc (and you
>have often argued about the lack of representative-ness, transparency etc of
>ICANN).

Neither ICANN nor IGF would claim to be completely representative of 
the user population.  Both have significant user components in their 
composition.

>
>Public policy activity needs to be financed by taxes - and not opportunistic
>or pro bono participation (with the political interests often disguised).
>These principals of policy and governance are basic... And we all do set
>some score by IGF's role in global public policy making in the area of the
>Internet.

IGF is a discussion forum.  It has no role ion global public policy making.

>
>
>IGF is in any case already financed through the UN which itself is financed
>through the taxes we pay.... And if you are not satisfied with
>'representation, control and accountability' of it, we need to engage and
>make it more so.
>
>IGF's purpose is to make ICANN and other IG spaces more accountable,
>stakeholder-controlled, transparent etc -

IGF is a discussion forum that deals with issues of Internet Governance.

>so, the tax collected from
>Internet users can and should legitimately be used for funding it. Starving
>the IGF of such funds and ICANN using the tax it collects in the manner it
>likes,

ICANN uses funds in a manner consistent with its mandate.  Please 
provide examples of use of ICANN funds that are completely 
inconsistent with its mandate.

>  is what constitutes a non-fulfillment of the above canons of fair
>governance you speak of.
>
>>  The principle of no taxation without representation is fundamental to
>>  democratic governance.
>
>I completely agree. That's the problem I have in paying taxes to ICANN.
>
>Parminder
>________________________________________________
>Parminder Jeet Singh
>IT for Change, Bangalore
>Bridging Development Realities and Technological Possibilities
>Tel: (+91-80) 2665 4134, 2653 6890
>Fax: (+91-80) 4146 1055
>www.ITforChange.net
>>  -----Original Message-----
>>  From: Milton Mueller [mailto:mueller at syr.edu]
>>  Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 9:10 PM
>>  To: Parminder at ITforChange.net; Jeanette Hofmann
>>  Cc: governance at lists.cpsr.org
>  > Subject: Re: [governance] Caucus at IGF stock taking meeting
>>
>>  >>> Parminder at ITforChange.net 2/1/2007 8:06:12 AM >>>
>>  >Your suggestions for raising funds are very interesting. A 'tax'
>>  >on domain names is a good idea, since the money is to be used
>>  >for IG related public policy activity.
>>
>>  Who speaks for the people who pay this tax? What representation,
>>  control or accountability do domain name registrants have over the IGF?
>>  (I would suggest: none)
>>
>>  The principle of no taxation without representation is fundamental to
>>  democratic governance.
>>
>>
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