[governance] Does it matter which legal system ICANN operates under?

[Keith Davidson]

Interesting question Kerry. I don't think the legal jurisdiction of 
ICANN moving would make any difference to the circumstances you outline. 
What is much more important is the actuality that the US Government is 
the administrator of the IANA database. So regardless of where you might 
choose the geographically locate ICANN, and regardless of which laws 
might govern ICANN etc, the fact remains that the US Government has the 
power and authority over the database that controls the Internets unique 
identifiers.

Unless you could enthuse a large number of ccTLD managers, the RIRs and 
the Root Server operators to operate an alternate database, this issue 
remains at the heart, with the appearance of US Government unilateral 
control.

Cheers

Keith Davidson

On 12/06/2013 4:12 a.m., Kerry Brown wrote:
> The subject line will probably stir some controversy. Because of that I
> will state my position clearly so people don’t misunderstand where I’m
> coming from. I abhor the Patriot Act. I abhor governments secretly
> collecting data with no oversight. I abhor how the Patriot Act has
> affected my country which is Canada. Because of the Patriot Act I am
> actively supporting the establishment of more IXPs in Canada to help
> keep Canadian data in Canada. I actively lobby my government to be more
> open and transparent.
>
> Now to the question I posed. Are we not conflating two issues that are
> not related? Solving one won’t change the other. If ICANN moved to a
> different jurisdiction tomorrow what would change re the American
> government’s access to private data? Many of the services that Internet
> users worldwide want to access are provided by American based companies
> subject to American law. Much of the world’s Internet traffic is carried
> on communications media owned by American companies subject to American
> law. How would changing the jurisdiction that ICANN operates under
> change the reality that if the American government wants to spy on
> anybody they could do so with relative ease?
>
> I am all for investigating what it would take to move ICANN away from US
> jurisdiction. There are many questions that need to be answered and
> problems that would need to be solved but in the end I believe it would
> be a good thing. I fail to see however that it would in any way hinder
> the US governments’ ability to collect data from the Internet. These are
> two distinct issues that will require different solutions.
>
> Kerry Brown
>

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