ICANN has already vastly overstepped whatever authorization it may have over the Internet, which is limited by the White Paper to "technical coordination of the domain name system". It has now got the monopoly registry of gTLDs - NSI - under its thumb, and will control the new gTLD root servers being set up by NSI. Further, it is now taking control of IP address allocation and re-allocation of ccTLDs, by contracting bilaterally with the RIRs and changing ccTLD server addresses in the "A" root. No consumers of Internet services, nor any of their representatives, have been permitted access to ICANN's counsels, and even ISPs have been excluded from the Address Supporting Organization. This is Internet governance gone mad. What are the TACD and the Nader organization going to do to stop it? Making records open is useless, if you do nothing when you see that the rules have been changed or broken. Reviewing budgets is useless if the money comes from private corporations. What are you going to do? (from TACD statement on ICANN) "The records of ICANN should be open to the public, including financial records, and all ICANN contracts, and ICANN should be accountable to the public. The public should be given an annual opportunity to review and comment on the ICANN budget. The Budget of ICANN should be subject to review by the countries that provide the ICANN charter. Fees associated with domain registration should only be spent on activities essential to the management of the DNS system." ============================================================ Michael Sondow I.C.I.I.U. http://www.iciiu.org Tel. (718)846-7482 Fax: (603)754-8927 ============================================================
