[governance] ICANN stumbling on a hornet nest

[Fahd A. Batayneh]

Way to go, the whole family is on-board now!

Fahd

On Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 8:00 PM, James S. Tyre <jstyre at jstyre.com> wrote:

> > I am that board member.
>
> And I was your lead lawyer.  (Which, obviously, you know, but most here
> presumably don't.)
>
> > Attacks on me made by ICANN in their legal filings were, to my mind,
> personal,
> > gratuitous, unprofessional, and, of course, unfounded.  A decade has
> passed and I
> > can't remember whether we moved to exclude those on the grounds that
> ICANN's
> > "evidence" was not relevant to the case at hand or whether we left it in
> as
> > demonstrative of ICANN's way of reacting to those it considered hostile.
>
> We filed token objections to some of it.  The Court ruled in your favor
> without really addressing those objections.  My particular favorite was
> Vint introducing a strongly worded email from John Gilmore to Vint as
> "evidence" of your supposedly bad character.
>
> > Even after the court threw out ICANN's defenses and granted me nearly
> every thing that
> > I had asked ICANN's press releases tried to characterize their utter
> defeat as if they
> > had won a great victory.
>
> At least Louis gave us ICANN Staff coffee mugs to show for it.  I still
> have mine.  '-)
>
> --
> James S. Tyre
> Law Offices of James S. Tyre
> 10736 Jefferson Blvd., #512
> Culver City, CA 90230-4969
> 310-839-4114/310-839-4602(fax)
> jstyre at jstyre.com
> Policy Fellow, Electronic Frontier Foundation
> https://www.eff.org
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org [mailto:governance-
> > request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of Karl Auerbach
> > Sent: Monday, September 03, 2012 10:31 AM
> > To: fahd.batayneh at gmail.com
> > Cc: governance at lists.igcaucus.org
> > Subject: Re: [governance] ICANN stumbling on a hornet nest
> >
> > On 09/02/2012 01:49 PM, Fahd A. Batayneh wrote:
> >     Le 02/09/12 09:27, Roland Perry a écrit :
> > >
> > >         What's different about the ICANN system is that a lone voice
> can
> > >         make a complaint which will be heard.
> >
> > > Maybe a good example would be the court case that was filed by an
> > > earlier ICANN board member to get access to documents that ICANN
> > > rejected to reveal to him.
> >
> > I am that board member.
> >
> > Have you ever tried to chop eucalyptus logs with an ax?  The wood is so
> rubbery that
> > the blade just bounces off, leaving only a small notch: a lot of effort
> for little
> > progress.
> >
> > ICANN is like a eucalyptus log.  If you want to affect it don't bring an
> ax; bring a
> > chain saw.
> >
> > ICANN did not change much after my law suite prevailed.  In fact in some
> ways they
> > changed their procedures to become even more secretive.  For instance
> their law firm
> > changed their billing procedures so that rather than enumerating the
> specific items of
> > work and charges for that work the monthly statements became a one-line
> statement of
> > the total amount of money due for the month's work.  This was done, I
> believe, to
> > prevent any future board member from evaluating the nature and quality
> of ICANN's
> > massive outflows of money to the law firm that created ICANN.
> >
> > Attacks on me made by ICANN in their legal filings were, to my mind,
> personal,
> > gratuitous, unprofessional, and, of course, unfounded.  A decade has
> passed and I
> > can't remember whether we moved to exclude those on the grounds that
> ICANN's
> > "evidence" was not relevant to the case at hand or whether we left it in
> as
> > demonstrative of ICANN's way of reacting to those it considered hostile.
> >
> > Even after the court threw out ICANN's defenses and granted me nearly
> every thing that
> > I had asked ICANN's press releases tried to characterize their utter
> defeat as if they
> > had won a great victory.
> >
> > And I am still ostracized by many former ICANN board members for taking
> (and, of
> > course, winning) that completely justified legal action.
> >
> > Many of the case materials are online:
> >
> > > https://w2.eff.org/Infrastructure/DNS_control/ICANN_IANA_IAHC/Auerbach
> > > _v_ICANN/
> >
> > What surprised me the most was the degree to which ICANN was, and I
> believe remains,
> > an entity that does not comprehend the role of its board of directors,
> both as a
> > collective body and as individual members.
> >
> > The larger consideration is that ICANN has always had an institutional
> paranoia the
> > engenders an automatic, visceral hostility to things that are not
> delivered wrapped
> > with almost sycophantic deference.
> >
> >       --karl--
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
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