IP: ICANNS DOMAIN NAME COMPETITION CLAIMS DISPUTED

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 15:17:24 -0400
> From: Milton Mueller <mueller () syr edu>
>
> NEWS RELEASE
>
> BWG DISPUTES ICANN’S DOMAIN NAME COMPETITION CLAIMS
>
> (Boston, April 23, 1999) The Boston Working Group (BWG) today
> challenged ICANN's claim that it had opened up the domain name
> registration market to competition. The group also criticized the
> contract ICANN has imposed upon its registrars, noting that it
> requires domain name registrants to sacrifice essential rights when
> applying for a domain name. “We see a lot of centralization of power
> and lots of regulation in the ICANN plan, but very little new
> competition,” said Dr. Milton Mueller, a Syracuse University professor
> and member of the group.
>
> COMPETITION, OR REGULATED MONOPOLY?
> The ICANN proposal, released Wednesday, accredits five new companies
> to register domain names in the ".com" ".net" and ".org" top-level
> domains.
>
> Despite ICANN's claims that this will bring competition to the domain
> name market, Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) retains its monopoly over
> the crucial database of registered names. The plan does not authorize
> new database administrators or new TLDs, and contains no measures to
> transfer ownership of the “.com,” “.net” and “.org” databases. The
> five new companies must pay NSI a one-time fee of $10,000, plus $9 per
> year for every name they register.
>
> Thus, the so-called "new competition" is nothing but an agreement to
> resell entries in NSI's registration database at a price regulated by
> the US government. Prior to the ICANN plan, hundreds of registrars
> were already reselling NSI names, at a higher price.
>
> BWG member David Schutt, network manager at Speco, Inc., questioned
> the significance of the ICANN initiative: "is competition between
> McDonalds franchises meaningful in a world where the only hamburger
> available is a McDonalds hamburger?"
>
> Dr. Mueller, an expert in telecommunications regulation, noted that
> the US Commerce Department 's National Telecommunications and
> Information Administration was responsible for setting NSI's
> compensation at $9/yr. per name. The NTIA, Mueller claimed, “seems to
> be imposing a cost-plus, utility regulation model upon the core
> functions of the Internet. I don’t understand why NTIA is opting for
> price regulation when it could simply open the market to new players
> and allow customers to have real alternatives. Besides, NTIA lacks the
> experience, the competence, and the legal authority to engage in
> economic regulation of Internet name services.”
>
> Most members of the BWG group believe that real competition in domain
> name service will come only with the addition of new top-level domains
> administered by registries other than NSI. Alternative TLDs have
> already been proposed for several years, but the US government has not
> allowed them to be entered into the root server databases. ICANN's
> plan to offer shared access to a monopoly registry fails to create the
> kind of product and service differentiation that competition among new
> registration authorities will bring.
>
> ERODING THE RIGHTS OF DOMAIN NAME HOLDERS
> The primary effect of the new plan is not to increase competition in
> domain name registration, but to give ICANN the power to regulate
> domain name registrars and domain name holders by creating a uniform
> and centralized registrar accreditation
> contract.
>
> Press reports about the ICANN plan completely overlooked the
> significance of the registrar accreditation contract, which can be
> viewed at http://www.icann.org/policy_statement.html. All service
> providers accredited by ICANN must force their customers to sign away
> important legal rights—including rights the courts have already
> granted to domain name holders.
>
> Registrars or registries can cancel or take back the domain name
> registration whenever they please, and all goodwill or business
> presence created in that name would be lost.
>
> The contract allows ICANN to develop a list of excluded names sometime
> in the future, and authorizes ICANN to refuse to re-register any name
> that shows up on that list—once again threatening a domain name
> holder’s goodwill and business presence.
>
> Those who wish to register domain names must also make a legally
> binding promise that the domain name doesn't interfere with anyone
> else's possible rights in the name -- something that even domain name
> lawyers often can't ascertain.
>
> "It's difficult to understand what ICANN is trying to achieve with
> this requirement," said Mikki Barry, BWG member and intellectual
> property lawyer. "Even in the best of worlds, it often takes a court
> to decide whether others have rights in any given claimed
> intellectual property."
>
> The BOSTON WORKING GROUP is an independent alliance of Internet
> technology professionals, lawyers, policy analysts, and academics.
> The BWG submitted a bylaws proposal for a new non-profit corporation
> to administer Internet domain names and addresses, and its submission
> played a key role in opening up ICANN to membership and public input.
> Several BWG members now serve on the ICANN Membership Advisory
> Committee and the Independent Review Advisory Committee.
>
> Contacts:
> Dr. Milton Mueller (East coast)
> Syracuse University School of Information Studies
> 315-443-5616 mueller () syr edu
>
> Ellen Rony (West coast)
> Phone:  415/435-5010 (days) or 415/435-1401 (evenings)
> Email: erony () marin k12 ca us
>
> David Schutt (Central)
> (847) 678-4240 days
> (708) 484-5063 evenings
>
>
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