[governance] Re: Verisign's Patent Application for the Transfer of DNSSEC Domains

[parminder]

Verisign seeking patent over a 'governance process' should not be too 
surprising, given that there has been a substantial creep from 'public' 
governance methods to 'private' (or contractbased)  governance methods. 
And many in the civil society here have enthusiastically supported this 
shift; so why lament now. ICANN proudly claims that it is not a 
regulator, it merely provides a platform for stakeholders (read, private 
interests) to negotiate, and the outcomes of these negotiations are 
operationalised by ICANN. An entirely innocent activity!

Once you admit the basic proposition that governance, like the market, 
is founded on private parties negotiating on the basis of their 
self-interests, and not based on 'public' interest, the construction of 
which is a larger political process, you have basically given it all 
away. Why would not then one seek maximisation of private interest by 
patenting a governance process embodied in a software for securing the 
DNS system? Well, we can now negotiate with them and they may just agree 
to a system of only taking 'reasonable' royalty on their patent!

To anyone trained in democratic thought, it is so unthinkably abhorrent 
that someone can even try to patent a governance process. But this is a 
post democratic period of multistakeholderism, where governance is 
through negotiation of private interests of different parties that can 
make to the table.

BTW, on another count, the fact that US law allows software patents 
while most other jurisdictions (like India) do not allow software 
patents makes for a good case that the US law is not the best one (it is 
perhaps the worst one) for oversight of the bodies dealing with 
Internet's technical governance. Yes, this argument is directly 
addressed to those who have claimed the superiority, or even the 
appropriateness, of oversight of US law/courts/ executive over the ICANN 
against other possible jurisdictions.

Parminder


On Monday 08 October 2012 02:32 PM, Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> I forgot to say that it reminds me of what the Director General of 
> WIPO had mentioned in relation to patenting the internet which was 
> reported exactly this time last year, see: 
> http://boingboing.net/2011/10/08/wipo-boss-the-web-would-have-been-better-if-it-was-patented-and-its-users-had-to-pay-license-fees.html
>
> Sala
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 8, 2012 at 8:21 PM, Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro 
> <salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com 
> <mailto:salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Dear All,
>
>     See the Application via
>     http://domainnamewire.com/wp-content/verisign-dnssec.pdf
>
>     Kind Regards,
>
>     -- 
>     Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala
>     P.O. Box 17862
>     Suva
>     Fiji
>
>     Twitter: @SalanietaT
>     Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro
>     Fiji Cell: +679 998 2851 <tel:%2B679%20998%202851>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala
> P.O. Box 17862
> Suva
> Fiji
>
> Twitter: @SalanietaT
> Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro
> Fiji Cell: +679 998 2851
>
>
>

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