blastfromthepast
27th March 2006, 01:51 AM
Friday, March 24th 2006 @ 11:00 AM PST
By Geoff Duncan
Staff Writer, Designtechnica News
In a major defection, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has suspended its involvement with Internet governing body ICANN pending process reforms.
In what might be a turning point in Internet governance, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has suspended its involvement with ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. At issue: ICANN's accountability, internal processes, and transparency.
CIRA was apparently pushed past the point of tolerance with the ICANN board's recent approval of VeriSign's continued control of the .com top-level domain space through at least the year 2012. ICANN has long been accused of being a tool of U.S. economic and foreign policy—and, indeed, the U.S. Commerce Department holds a de facto veto power over ICANN policy decisions, which the Bush administration has used to prevent turning Internet governance over to an international body.
CIRA has been a long time policy and financial supporter of ICANN, but is now so concerned about the organization's policy directions and processes that it has suspended its contributions to the body, will decline to host or sponsor any ICANN events, and will cease chairing ICANN's ccNSO IANA working group. While CIRA says it is optimistic ICANN can right itself, CIRA maintains ICANN must increase its accountability to stakeholders; subject board decisions (like the recent VeriSign renewal) to appropriate checks and balances; perform proper record-keeping of board meetings and make those records available to the public; and both create and enforce fair, transparent, and accountable processes in conjunction with its stakeholders.
It remains to be seen whether any other ICANN constituents will follow CIRA's lead: certainly there already exists significant unease among ICANN members, particularly in regard to the regulation of internationalized domain names, specialized top-level domains (including the proposed .xxx "online red light district" top-level domain), and management of domain registries. With more defections, Internet governance could conceivably fragment, resulting in parallel, not-necessarily-interoperable Internets running in different parts of the world.
http://news.designtechnica.com/article9883.html
By Geoff Duncan
Staff Writer, Designtechnica News
In a major defection, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has suspended its involvement with Internet governing body ICANN pending process reforms.
In what might be a turning point in Internet governance, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has suspended its involvement with ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. At issue: ICANN's accountability, internal processes, and transparency.
CIRA was apparently pushed past the point of tolerance with the ICANN board's recent approval of VeriSign's continued control of the .com top-level domain space through at least the year 2012. ICANN has long been accused of being a tool of U.S. economic and foreign policy—and, indeed, the U.S. Commerce Department holds a de facto veto power over ICANN policy decisions, which the Bush administration has used to prevent turning Internet governance over to an international body.
CIRA has been a long time policy and financial supporter of ICANN, but is now so concerned about the organization's policy directions and processes that it has suspended its contributions to the body, will decline to host or sponsor any ICANN events, and will cease chairing ICANN's ccNSO IANA working group. While CIRA says it is optimistic ICANN can right itself, CIRA maintains ICANN must increase its accountability to stakeholders; subject board decisions (like the recent VeriSign renewal) to appropriate checks and balances; perform proper record-keeping of board meetings and make those records available to the public; and both create and enforce fair, transparent, and accountable processes in conjunction with its stakeholders.
It remains to be seen whether any other ICANN constituents will follow CIRA's lead: certainly there already exists significant unease among ICANN members, particularly in regard to the regulation of internationalized domain names, specialized top-level domains (including the proposed .xxx "online red light district" top-level domain), and management of domain registries. With more defections, Internet governance could conceivably fragment, resulting in parallel, not-necessarily-interoperable Internets running in different parts of the world.
http://news.designtechnica.com/article9883.html