[governance] ICANN to get $8 Million More from New .com Deal

Mon Aug 6 08:39:55 EDT 2012

Fair questions, Parminder.

.Com and Verisign are “special” in that .com still operates under an ancient (199x) “Cooperative Agreement” that started with the National Science Foundation and then moved to the Commerce Department in 1997. For a list of amendments to that contract (it is looooong), see this:
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/ntiahome/domainname/nsi.htm In that technical-legal minutiae you will find whatever “review” capabilities exist.

Basically the battle over the establishment of ICANN was not really complete until Verisign, which has de facto operational control of the root zone and, with its control of .com, accounted for over half of the domain name market back then, accepted ICANN and agreed to play ball with it. Litigation between Versign and ICANN over the terms of the .com agreement was settled in 2005, I think (people closer to this issue such as Bret Fausett will correct me if I am off) and because of the competition policy/monopoly implications of the settlement, and the existence of the cooperative agreement, the USG had the authority to approve it.

This 2006 press release from the US DoC explains in a nutshell what happened with that initial settlement and USG review:
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/ntiahome/press/2006/icanncom_113006.htm

Other than things pertaining to the specific terms of the IANA contract, I cannot think of any other areas where ICANN decisions would be subject to USG review.

As an advocate of government regulation of big business, however, I am sure you are pleased to learn that the US government is looking out for you when it comes to Verisign. ;-)

From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org [mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of parminder
Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2012 1:39 AM
To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org
Subject: Re: [governance] Re: [Arab IGF] ICANN to get $8 Million More from New .com Deal

One thing in the news item on the renewal of .com agreement interested me a lot.

"The deal is currently under review by the US Department of Commerce and Bidzos said he expects it to be approved before November 30, when the current contract expires."

I did not know that US government exercised review over ICANN's routine contract renewals. So much for the claims that US hardly exercises any 'real' or 'in effect' oversight role over ICANN. Can anyone provide us a list of what all decisions of ICANN are subject to US gov's review and confirmation, and in what manner. This will help one form a good view of what really is the oversight role with US at present, something which has always been so much in the eye of the storm.

I direct this question especially at those who seem so awfully disappointed that despite the best efforts of ICANN/ technical community, most outsiders, especially those with pathological political sensitivities, simply are not able to understand much :).

Pl note that the above is a simple and direct question, and should be able to have a clear and direct response. I am sure ICANN insiders would know the answer.

parminder

On Saturday 04 August 2012 12:37 PM, Riaz K Tayob wrote:
This can be understood in terms of path dependency as well as Public Choice theory... at some level of abstraction.

On 2012/08/03 02:48 PM, Fouad Bajwa wrote:

The financial aspect and opportunities will always be there because at
the end of the day, we see a lot of stuff that inclines towards
benefiting the domain industry.

Best

Fouad

On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 1:20 PM, Fahd A. Batayneh
<fahd.batayneh at gmail.com><mailto:fahd.batayneh at gmail.com> wrote:

http://domainincite.com/9845-icann-to-get-8-million-more-from-new-com-deal

I wonder if this was the reason why ICANN renewed the .com agreement in
favor of VeriSign Inc., causing lots of controversy and question marks
within the ICANN community.

Fahd

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