[governance] "Oversight"

[John Curran]

On Jun 4, 2012, at 3:20 AM, parminder wrote:
> For those who have been arguing that ICANN cannot remove individual websites, that might be true, but they can remove complete domain names, like cctlds, isnt it. (If in doubt about this, pl read the blog by the CEO of Canadian Internet Registration Authority.)
> 
> sorry, forgot to post the link to the blog. it is 
> http://blog.cira.ca/2012/03/domain-name-seizures-and-ca/ 

Indeed, ICANN can remove entire top-level-domains (such as a ccTLD)
That is going to be the case for some entity no matter how you set up
Internet governance in this area.

The fact is that the portion of the USG (DoC/NTIA) with that ability has not, 
to my knowledge, ever exercised that authority contrary to the output of 
ICANN's processes.  The very blog you reference describes it very well - 

"Think about this: the U.S. government hasn’t even shut down the Internet in nations they’ve been at war or have very strained relations with – Iraq, Libya, Iran are just a few examples – because the trust that supports the Internet is fundamental to the economic and social well-being of humanity.  Given that, why would they shut down an entire top level domain over a single website?"

This potential ability is also why transparency of DoC/NTIA - IANA interaction is 
_so_ important and was highlighted in a number of responses during the public
comment period on IANA contract renewal.

> For us outside the US, that is bad enough.

Be very careful what you wish for, as you might well get what you ask...
(and there is no reason to believe that any future steward will have the same 
level of respect for non-political operation of critical Internet infrastructure)

FYI,
/John

Disclaimers:  My personal views alone.  Freshest if consumed by date in headers.
Email was packed by weight of concepts, not volume of keystrokes, and some 
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