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IP: PETITION TO ICANN AND THE US DEPT OF COMMERCE
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 21:50:50 -0400
May 10, 1999 PETITION TO ICANN AND THE US DEPT OF COMMERCE On May 6, 1999, ICANN posted the following statement was posted on its web site at http://www.icann.org/wipo/wipo.htm "The ICANN Board of Directors will consider the WIPO Final Report, including its annexes, at its May 27 meeting and will take appropriate action, which may include from [sic] seeking further comments on the recommendations, referring of some or all of them to other ICANN entities, and/or adopting certain of the recommendations." The undersigned strongly object to the last phrase in this sentence, referring to "adopting certain of the recommendations." We wish to see any reference to "adoption" removed from the Berlin meeting agenda. Under the "bottom up" philosophy articulated in the White Paper and in ICANN's own by-laws, important decisions regarding domain name policy were supposed to be passed up to ICANN's board by the Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO). The DNSO does not exist yet. ICANN has encouraged numerous individuals and organizations to make substantial investments in the creation of the DNSO and its constituencies, with the promise that good-faith participation in the process would give them a voice in policy making. Those expectations would be unjustly frustrated if ICANN adopted any recommendations of the WIPO proposals in Berlin. ICANN's current board was appointed on a temporary basis and was not elected by a membership. Its sole mandate is to get the organization started and to fill the gaps in its membership, board and by-laws. It is not appropriate for a board with interim status to make lasting policy on such a sensitive and complex matter. It is, in fact, a cause for great concern for ICANN even to publicly propose adopting such proposals at this juncture. The WIPO recommendations comprise over 120 pages of dense legal prose. The final report will have been out for public consideration only three weeks when the Berlin meeting is convened. Whether one supports or opposes the proposals, it is undeniable that they will have a profound and permanent impact on domain name registrations and on international intellectual property rights. No legitimate purpose can be served by hasty adoption or by short-circuiting the deliberative process that ICANN was created to foster. Furthermore, we question the ability of the current Board to properly assess the WIPO recommendations and comments about them amidst the flood of comments and documents pertaining to other important matters, such as the DNSO, ASO, and PSO formation, the definition of the constituencies, and the Membership Advisory Committee recommendations. We feel that the whole idea of ICANN would be undermined if the interim board were to make fundamental and permanent changes in domain name policy with inadequate information, without even the possibility of consultation with a DNSO and the other supporting organizations, and without members. The overall effect would be highly destructive of the trust and cooperation that is required to run the Internet properly. We urge the Board to wait until the DNSO is formed and then send the WIPO report to the DNSO for the DNSO's consideration. Signed: Laina Raveendran Greene, GetIT Pte Ltd., WIPO Panel of Experts, SINGAPORE Ellen and Peter Rony, Authors, Domain Name Handbook, USA Milton Mueller, Syracuse University School of Information Studies, USA Lawrence Lessig, Harvard University, USA David J. Farber, University of Pennsylvania, USA Kathy Kleiman, Esq., Counsel, Domain Name Rights Coalition, USA Scott Bradner, Harvard University USA Anthony M. Rutkowski, USA James V. DeLong, USA Dan Steinberg SYNTHESIS Law & Technology, CANADA Harold Feld, USA Tressa Kirby, VRx, CANADA Richard Sexton, VRx, CANADA Gene Marsh, AnyCAST, USA David J. Steele, USA Gordon Cook, The Cook Report on the Internet, USA Karl Auerbach, USA Image Online Design, Inc. USA Jay Fenello, Iperdome, Inc. USA Patrick Greenwell, Telocity, USA Mikki Barry, Esq. USA Eric Weisberg, Internet Texoma, USA
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