[governance] FYI: ICANN Releases Its Submission to the Midterm Review of the Joint Project Agreement

[Milton L Mueller]

Dan:
Ending the JPA simply means that the USG withdraws from one form of oversight, but retains the IANA contract. The JPA (like the MoUs before it) is a bit more prescriptive and explicit in its policy guidance. It is good to get rid of it. The issue of the IANA contract is far more fundamental; that is what gives the USG life and death power over ICANN. 
 
ICANN's lack of accountability to its public remains a problem, of course. Removing the JPA does not, as far as I can tell, afftect that either negatively or positively. It removes one lever that the USG has for imposing accountability on the organization, but we want ICANN to be accountable to the Internet public, not to the USG. And it is difficult to argue that the US Gov serves as a suitable proxy for the global public interest. 

________________________________

From: Dan Krimm [mailto:dan at musicunbound.com]
Sent: Thu 1/10/2008 4:02 PM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Subject: Re: [governance] FYI: ICANN Releases Its Submission to the Midterm Review of the Joint Project Agreement



Can you please clarify exactly what this "conclusion" means?  Would it mean
that DoC/NTIA completely removes whatever (weak) oversight it currently
has, and that ICANN's only "oversight" is from generic law governing NPOs
in the US and in California (such as the federal section 501 statute and CA
laws of NP incorporation)?

So ICANN would cease to be a quasi-governmental entity in direct connection
to the US federal administration?

Or is this something less dramatic?

Dan



At 10:14 AM -0500 1/10/08, Veni Markovski wrote:
>http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-09jan08.htm
>
>ICANN Releases Its Submission to the Midterm
>Review of the Joint Project Agreement
>
>MARINA DEL REY, Calif.: The Internet Corporation
>for Assigned Names and Numbers today made its
>formal submission to the Midterm Review of the
>Joint Project Agreement (JPA) between ICANN and
>the United States Department of Commerce.
>
>The submission?s main point is that the
>conclusion of the JPA would be a further step in
>the transition envisioned since ICANN was
>established ? one of moving the Domain Name
>System to private-sector co-ordination.
>
>"Ending the JPA will provide long-term stability
>and security for a model that works," stated
>Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush in the ICANN Board
>submission. "It will provide confidence to all
>participants that the investment of time, thought
>and energy for over nine years has secured an
>Internet coordination body that will always be
>owned by all stakeholders, not managed or overseen by any one entity."
>
>The U.S. Government has been committed to the
>transition of the DNS to the private sector since
>1998. Over this time there have been seven
>Memorandums of Understanding between ICANN and
>the USG, and 13 status reports measuring ICANN?s progress.
>
>The submission also states that the completion of
>the JPA will clearly signal that JPA and the MOUs
>before it have been successful.
>
>"This success should be commemorated," Dengate
>Thrush stated in the Board?s submission.
>
>ICANN?s Board is encouraging the Internet
>Community to take part in the Midterm Review
>before the 15 February 2008 deadline for submissions.
>
>If you continue to believe, in full transition of
>the domain name system to the private sector, and
>in an Internet that is co-ordinated not
>controlled, now is the time to say so and be a
>part of the next step in that transition.
>
>ICANN?s entire submission to the Midterm Review
>[PDF,101K] including a table outlining the
>organization?s achievements on the 10
>responsibilities of the JPA [PDF, 469K], is
>publicly available at http://icann.org <http://icann.org/> .
>
>A link to the Department of Commerce?s Midterm
>Review is available online at
>http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/frnotices/2007/ICANN_JPA_110207.html.
>
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