[governance] How do ICANN's actions hurt the average Internet

[George Sadowsky]

Karl,

I think I understand what you are saying - that in the past 
individual registrants who signed up with TLDs that had not been 
explicitly approved by ICANN lost registration rights and had to 
re-register with an ICANN-approved TLD to obtain a domain name.  That 
appears to be historically correct.

However, apart from these incidents, can you identify any current 
harm that ICANN is doing to individual Internet users?  You might 
argue that continued restrictive expansion of the name space is 
harming users, but I think that this is more like not allowing 
drivers to obtain the vanity license plates that they want for their 
cars  -  it does not stop them from obtaining their license plates 
with another background or tag number, and they can they drive 
anywhere that anyone else can drive.

Do you agree with this, or can you identify specific current harm 
that ICANN is doing to the individual Internet user?  Some current 
Internet users are, of course, registrants, but more are not and just 
user the Internet.

George


At 1:14 PM -0500 7/7/09, kpeters at tldainc.org wrote:
>       First of all, ANY honest question is the right question to ask...
>       From my perspective, the biggest problems naturally lie in the 
>handling of top-level domains and affect first those who would run 
>them and secondly those who would register under them.
>       ICANN's primary interest in the decision of what TLDs to carry 
>and who should manage them appears to be who provides the best 
>advantage to ICANN, not who would benefit from the effective 
>operation of a TLD. As proof of this, look a the meeting where ICANN 
>decided against honoring Atlantic Root Network, Inc.'s .BIZ that was 
>already profitably operational outside of ICANN and its "sale" to 
>the group who had paid lots of ICANN fees and gone through all their 
>financial hoops and would, of course collect fees for ICANN from 
>every domain registration. Several thousand people with .BIZ domains 
>in the other roots were forced to move over to the new company and 
>forfeit their placement and hosting and so forth under the previous 
>system, not to mention it then costing more with the new people, all 
>on ICANN's whim.
>      Then, on the same day, they denied one of our members .WEB 
>after he actually pulled out of the other roots and jumped through 
>all the hoops and paid all the fees ICANN asked. The VERY weak 
>excuse for this second decision, at that time, was that Chris 
>Ambler's .WEB had rivals in other roots and ICANN did not want to 
>pick one over the other. To this day, there is no .WEB, but there 
>has never been any payment for lost rights and revenue to Atlantic 
>Root Network for the clear theft of .BIZ. It leaves one to wonder if 
>the .com people who pay almost all of ICANN expenses might have been 
>justifiably afraid of a .WEB and lobbied against it behind closed 
>doors. I can not prove that, but neither can I see any consistant 
>logic in taking .BIZ from one group for another, but denying .WEB to 
>Chris on the grounds another group was claiming it, also outside of 
>ICANN.
>     They lost me forever that day!!!
>-Karl E. Peters
>kpeters at tldainc.org
>(912) 638-1638  (USA)
>
>Quoting George Sadowsky <george.sadowsky at attglobal.net>:
>
>>All,
>>
>>A considerable number of posts on this list seem to indicate that ICANN
>>is prominent in many peoples' concerns regarding Internet governance.
>>I'd like to pose the following question:
>>
>>"How do ICANN's actions (or inactions) disadvantage or hurt the average
>>Internet user, who may have, but probably doesn't have, a domain name
>>and/or a Web site?"
>>
>>Responses to this question would help to identify possible changes that
>>could be made to improve ICANN's responsibility to act in the public
>>interest with respect to Internet development.  Specific and succinct
>>responses would be most useful to understand your point of view.
>>
>>I ask this question because I am mystified by the dissonance between
>>the level of negative comment with respect to ICANN and the lack of
>>specificity of the charges brought against the organization with
>>respect to its impact on Internet users.
>>
>>If you believe that this is the wrong question to ask, why do you think
>>so, and what question would you propose in place of it?  What is your
>>response to your proposed question?  Again, specific and succinct
>>responses would be most useful to understand your point of view.
>>
>>George Sadowsky
>
>
>
>
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