CDT Report Calls for Continued ICANN Reform in Light of Internet Governance Debate

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: CDT Info <info () cdt org>
Date: July 16, 2004 9:11:17 AM EDT
To: policy-posts () cdt org
Subject: Policy Post 10.12: CDT Report Calls for Continued ICANN Reform 
in Light of Internet Governance Debate

CDT POLICY POST Volume 10, Number 12, July 16, 2004

A Briefing On Public Policy Issues Affecting Civil Liberties Online
from
The Center For Democracy and Technology


(1) CDT Report Calls for Continued ICANN Reform in Light of Internet 
Governance
Debate

(2) ICANN Meeting in Kuala Lumpur With Attention on WSIS, Governance

(3) Report Reviews ICANN's Limited Mission, Powers

(4) CDT Calls for Renewed Focus on This Narrow Mission


---------------------------------------
(1) CDT Report Calls for Continued ICANN Reform in Light of Internet
Governance Debate

CDT has issued a report calling for reform of the Internet Corporation 
on
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in light of the growing worldwide 
debate
over Internet governance. The report argues that the vision on which 
ICANN
was founded -- bottom-up, inclusive private-sector coordination of 
domain
name and numbering functions -- remains the best way to manage those
critical functions while preserving the democratic character of the
Internet. But CDT also believes that ICANN is straying from this 
vision, and
it must change if it is to survive.

The success of ICANN has taken on greater importance given the new 
focus on
Internet governance surrounding the U.N.'s ongoing World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS). ICANN has naturally become a target in the
Internet governance debate because of its role in managing key Internet
assets, and because it looks to many like a regulatory body that might 
be a
precedent for centralized control of the Internet.

CDT's report, "ICANN and Internet Governance: Getting Back to Basics,"
offers suggestions for ICANN's reform based on the limited role it was
intended to fill. CDT's report calls on ICANN to --

* visibly refocus on its core mission and disavow broader regulatory
activities;

* embrace bottom-up consensus as a cornerstone of its approach; and

* do more to make ICANN inclusive.

Unless ICANN commits to this approach, it risks being altered or 
supplanted
by international efforts to link its management of Internet naming and
numbering with broader "Internet governance" goals like content 
regulation.
Such a result could well threaten the revolutionary decentralized
characteristics that have been the hallmark of the Internet's promise to
promote free speech, civic discourse, and economic opportunity around 
the
world.

CDT's report is now available online at http://www.cdt.org/dns/ The 
report
is being released in the lead-up to ICANN's meeting in Kuala Lumpur next
week. Significant issues at that meeting will include ICANN's 
interaction
with the WSIS "Internet governance" initiative, the introduction of
internationalized (foreign language) domain names, and ICANN's greatly
expanded proposed budget for next year.


---------------------------------------
(2) ICANN Meeting in Kuala Lumpur With Attention to WSIS Governance 
Debate

The second ICANN meeting of this year will be held in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia July 19-23.  Among the issues of importance at the meeting are
ICANN's expanded 2004-2005 budget, and its relationship to the ongoing 
WSIS
process.

ICANN's controversial proposed 2004-2005 budget projects an almost 
doubling
of ICANN's 2003-2004 expenditures, and is expected to be a significant 
point
of discussion in Kuala Lumpur. Critics of the budget say it signals an
unwise expansion in ICANN's size and activities. Supporters say the 
funds
are necessary to perform ICANN's limited, but important role 
efficiently and
effectively. At the very least, the dramatic increase in ICANN's budget 
raise
questions about the power to increase fees paid ultimately by those who
register domain names, and about the size and scope of ICANN's 
activities.

Real or perceived expansions of ICANN's role are of particular 
importance
because of ongoing discussions about larger issues of Internet 
governance.
This governance debate is a central focus of preparations for the 
second phase
of the World Summit on the Information Society, culminating in November 
2005.
Concerns among governments participating in WSIS have led to calls for 
greater
centralized Internet governance, or even some kind of general purpose,
intergovernmental Internet governance body.

Many who have called for centralization of Internet governance have 
pointed to
ICANN as a precedent.  In part, this is due to the misperception that 
ICANN is
a broad regulatory body with broad powers, when in fact ICANN has a very
narrow mandate and very limited power. ICANN's role in this governance 
debate
will therefore be another important focus of the Kuala Lumpur meeting.

Change in ICANN is needed-but not by making it an intergovernmental 
body or
broadening its power. Rather, ICANN must be focused on the design that 
gave it
birth, in order to save that vision of decentralized, bottom up 
coordination.


---------------------------------------
(3) Report Reviews ICANN's Limited Mission, Powers

CDT's report reviews ICANN's history and the role it was intended to 
serve.
In sum, ICANN was founded on three principles:

* It would have a narrow mission focused on the coordination of certain
domain name and addressing functions.

* It would adopt policies within that narrow scope by bottom-up 
consensus
among affected parties.

* Its processes would be transparent, predictable, and open to wide, 
global
participation.

These principles were embodied in the U.S. Department of Commerce's 
White
Paper, and later endorsed in the International Forum on the White 
Paper. The
White Paper itself stressed that the plan it was outlining "applies 
only to
management of Internet names and addresses and does not set out a 
system of
Internet 'governance.'"

ICANN's power was supposed to be limited in two important ways. One was 
express
limitation on the subjects of ICANN's authority. For example,  ICANN is 
not
supposed to condition issuance of a domain name (or a block of IP 
numbers) on
policies regarding the content that is distributed via the domain name.

The second mechanism was consensus-based decision-making. Generic Top 
Level
Domain (gTLD) registries (like .com or .org) are only bound to comply 
with
policies from ICANN that reflect an actual, documented consensus among 
affected
parties. This was designed to ensure that ICANN could not overreach by 
passing
rules without the consent of those affected by those rules.

Instead, in many ways ICANN is departing from these mechanisms. CDT's 
report
outlines how ICANN has used its "control" over the creation of new 
generic Top
Level Domains (gTLDs) to force new registries and registrars to accept
detailed controls on their operations. Even if today's ICANN Board 
disavows
interest in overregulation, such overly detailed controls set a bad
precedent-and communicate a potentially dangerous misimpression to the
world-of ICANN exercising broader authority than many even within ICANN
intend.

Moreover, the top-down impositions of obligations by ICANN's Board and 
staff
have in many ways circumvented the bottom-up consensus approach on which
ICANN was founded. The Independent Review Panel that was to serve as an
appeals body has not, and may never be, created.  And after abruptly
eliminating the original structure that would have elected half of 
ICANN's
directors to represent the Internet community at-large, ICANN has not 
yet
developed adequate alternatives for public representation in its
decision-making - sending a discouraging message to public interest 
groups
and interested individuals.

---------------------------------------
(4) CDT Calls for Focus on Narrow Mission, Bottom-up Consensus Process

Given the threats to private-sector coordination of naming and numbering
posed by the Internet governance debates, CDT's report calls on ICANN to
"get back to basics" through continued reform. Specific recommendations
include:

* ICANN should recommit itself to the extremely limited mission it was
created to accomplish. It should expressly disclaim governmental powers
and reaffirm its limited focus in its bylaws and articles. Although some
policy issues will be inextricably linked to ICANN's technical 
coordination
role, it should minimize policy activities to the greatest extent 
possible.

* ICANN should adhere to the principle of subsidiarity and bottom-up
decision-making-leaving decisions to local control unless there is a
consensus that global policies are needed.

* Policy development should be transparent and predictable, with ICANN
announcing proposals earlier and consistently following the processes 
it has
established.

* ICANN should continue to pursue mutually acceptable relationships 
with the
other key entities that manage critical Internet functions, like the 
root
server operators, regional addressing registries, and country-code TLDs.

* ICANN should strengthen activities to engage diverse constituencies 
in its
activities, reflecting the global diversity of Internet users.

Finally, both WSIS and ICANN need to allow the Internet to continue to
develop as it has in the past, on the basis of global cooperation and 
bottom
up, decentralized decision-making.  That is the policy framework most 
likely
to support growth of the Internet as an engine of freedom, economic
empowerment and human development, particularly for developing nations.

CDT's report "ICANN and Internet Governance: Getting Back to Basics" is
available online at: http://www.cdt.org/dns/icann/20040713_cdt.pdf

For more information about ICANN, domain names, or Internet governance
more generally, please visit: http://www.cdt.org/dns/


---------------------------------------
Detailed information about online civil liberties issues may be found
at http://www.cdt.org/ .

This document may be redistributed freely in full or linked to
http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_10.12.shtml .

Excerpts may be re-posted with prior permission of
ari () cdt org

Policy Post 10.12 Copyright 2004 Center for Democracy and Technology
_______________________________________________
http://www.cdt.org/mailman/listinfo/policy-posts

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