COMPUTERGRAM INTERNATIONAL: JULY 25 2000
+ Kill ICANN and Start Again, Group Says
A group of net users has called for the scrapping of ICANN, the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which
regulates the internet's domain name system. ICANN isn't
working, the group argues, and should be replaced with a body
with further-reaching powers.
The People For Internet Responsibility, a California non-profit
organization formed last November to represent "grass roots"
net users, published a paper yesterday in which it claims
ICANN's performance in its two years of existence has been
"inadequate". The document says ICANN carries too much
historical baggage, a dubious remit, and should be replaced
with an entirely new international body.
.........................................................
PFIR apparently has the high-level swing to get a full blurb on
Computerwire. What is it?
This says that PFIR wants a new body with "further-reaching
powers". Is this true? What further powers does PFIR want to give
the NewCo?
Finally, Jay fenelo wrote (to PFIR):
> Do you really believe that the current ICANN
> board has managed their affairs in an ethical
> and moral way (some measures of which include
> truthfulness and honesty)?
>
> If so, then there are many who would like to
> understand your beliefs, especially given the
> historical record as *not* documented in the
> GAO Report.
>
> If not, then by implication are we to assume
> that you support compromises in ethics and
> morals under some extreme circumstances,
> such as those facing the ICANN board?
Important questions, these. Another important question is whether or
not the Internet is going to be governed by democratic laws, or if
it will be controlled by a dictatorship, as it now is, with no
membership, no bylaws ensuring due process, and all its policies
being made by "appointees" representing big business.
If PFIR approves of the unelected ICANN board and its dictatorial
methods, and believes the NewCo should have wider powers, the PFIR
may be a ruse to make ICANN more powerful than it already is.
Who is PFIR?
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Michael Sondow I.C.I.I.U. http://www.iciiu.org
Tel. (718)846-7482 Fax: (603)754-8927
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