[governance] so do i owe bill drake a pizza or not?

[Jeffrey A. Williams]

Karl and all,

  Good and thoughtful points here Karl, thanks!  Me thinks
that there is much that is not well defined "Yet" in this
affirmation that may be later or may never be, leaving same
to multipul interpratations which has long reaching benifits
as well as detraments.  So I am not sure that DOC/NTIA is
fully if at all off the hook yet, or wants to be.  But it is
clear that Beckstrom would prefer such.  The privacy intrusion
vis-a-vis WHOIS is worrisom as that has been and remains a
contencious issue.  

-----Original Message-----
>From: Karl Auerbach <karl at cavebear.com>
>Sent: Sep 30, 2009 3:08 PM
>To: governance at lists.cpsr.org, William Drake <william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch>
>Cc: Adam Peake <ajp at glocom.ac.jp>
>Subject: Re: [governance] so do i owe bill drake a pizza or not?
>
>On 09/30/2009 10:01 AM, William Drake wrote:
>> Let's see.  On the one hand we have
>>
>> 1. IANA contract
>> 2. VeriSign contract
>> 3. California law
>> 4. Entrenched org culture
>> 5. Entrenched commercial interests
>> 6. Whatever back channel political deals and assurances were needed in
>> DC, etc (the administration will probably take heat for it anyway)
>> 7. etc
>>
>> On the other hand, we have
>>
>> 1. NTIA's reviews replaced by non-binding panels.
>
>I see serious problems with this "Affirmation".
>
>First of all, NTIA cites as authority only the most vague and general of 
>statutory authorizations.  If one accepts those as adequate it means, 
>for example, that NTIA has the general authority to enter into 
>agreements that require US corporations to include a committee of 
>foreign governments in their highest decision making processes.
>
>That might be a thought that gives comfort to some outside the US but it 
>scares the beejeebers out of me as a whole new and previously unseen 
>kind of expansion of US governmental power into the affairs of private 
>activities.
>
>There are several other aspects in which NTIA's citation of authority is 
>not adequate for the impositions it places on ICANN.
>
>Second, the agreement, as you mention, leaves open many other issues, 
>such as who prepares the root zone, is NTIA still in the approval loop 
>(I see no reason to believe that it is not).
>
>Third, the "Affirmation" seems to be designed to buttress the 
>intellectual property industry's drumbeat for an every more revealing 
>and privacy-busting "whois"
>
>Fourth, it leaves ICANN still in an unclear position with regard to 
>anti-trust laws.
>
>Fifth, given that the ICANN-Verisign contracts and legal agreements are 
>based on certain assumptions about what NTIA delegated to ICANN, there 
>is now a cloud on those contracts and agreements in that they now may be 
>based on a vanished foundation.
>
>The "Affirmation" is still based on the technically false belief that 
>other DNS systems do exist and that some may come into larger use than 
>they have.
>
>And where are the root operators in all of this - they, at a flick of 
>their text editors - can obviate this entire ICANN/NTIA structure.
>
>This "Affirmation" is a collection of euphemisms wrapped in pretty ribbons.
>
>By-the-way, did anyone else notice the list of "reactions" - all from 
>people who must have been given an advance copy and none of whom are 
>ICANN critics.
>
>		--karl--
>
>____________________________________________________________
>You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>     governance at lists.cpsr.org
>To be removed from the list, send any message to:
>     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org
>
>For all list information and functions, see:
>     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance

Regards,

Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 294k members/stakeholders strong!)
"Obedience of the law is the greatest freedom" -
   Abraham Lincoln

"Credit should go with the performance of duty and not with what is very
often the accident of glory" - Theodore Roosevelt

"If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B; liability
depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by
P: i.e., whether B is less than PL."
United States v. Carroll Towing  (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947]
===============================================================
Updated 1/26/04
CSO/DIR. Internet Network Eng. SR. Eng. Network data security IDNS. div. of
Information Network Eng.  INEG. INC.
ABA member in good standing member ID 01257402 E-Mail jwkckid1 at ix.netcom.com
Phone: 214-244-4827

____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance