Emerson H. Tiller

Country of Citizenship: United States
Place of Residence: Austin, Texas
Email: tiller@mail.utexas.edu
Employer: University of Texas at Austin
Platform:http://64.82.55.205/tiller.html

STATEMENT

Background and Platform: http://64.82.55.205/tiller.html
Public information campaign:

WHAT'S AT STAKE

This election, plain and simple, is about the future of the Internet. Your vote determines what role ICANN will play in that future. Will ICANN be a super-regulatory institution, a back room technical operation, a pawn of the U.S. government? Will ICANN be "captured" by special interests? Will ICANN foster an open Internet environment? Will ICANN tightly control who does, and who does not, have voice in cyberspace? Should ICANN choose policies that improve global competitive conditions? Does that mean more property rights, or less? What do we do with ICANN?

WHY I'M A CANDIDATE

I think the issues of Internet governance are more important than most of the issues you and I get to vote on. We are at the ground level in building up a structure - be it technological, political, or philosophical - that will guide us for years, if not generations, to come. ICANN sits at the core of the structure. Its control of the DNS gives it incredible power -- power that must be managed in a sensible way.

I am a professor at the University of Texas (Austin) and I research, write, and teach about Internet domain name policy (and ICAAN's role). I edit the publication Internet Law and Business which summarizes and reports the major domain name decisions announced by ICANN. I am also the chairman of icannVote.com -- an independent public information website where average Internet users can learn about ICANN and have assistance in registering as at large members of ICANN. More than 6000 unique visitors have gone to the site to learn about ICANN. I have owned and managed websites (and domain names associated with those sites). Most of the issues that ICANN is dealing with, I have addressed either as an educator, domain name owner, or general Internet user. More than any qualifications, I have a vision of how ICANN can be a positive force for improving the Internet. See my platform below.

RETURN TO TOP

MY PLATFORM (WHAT I STAND FOR)

1. Reform the at-large membership process to be more inclusive. The current membership drive excluded thousands. This was the result of (a) ICANN's lack of communication to the broader Internet community about what it does, and (b) ICANN's overloaded servers during the end of at-large registration. These factors no doubt left many people out of the at large membership effort, and gave certain savy and well-organized groups the chance to capture the at large membership. If ICANN's membership does not better reflect the broader Internet using community, ICANN's legitimacy will be questioned. As a director, I would ensure that information about ICANN is circulated widely through outlets intended to reach every group of society (not just people on chat sessions and email lists). Registration should be allowed by fax, email and regular mail to ensure that anyone who tries can get their membership accepted.
2. Reform ICANN's Domain Name Dispute Policy to better balance free speech and the interests of small entrepreneurs with big business' concern for cybersquatting. While the current policy has effectively stopped much of the abusive cybersquatting, the policy, and its implementation, has also allowed ICANN's arbitrators to take domain names away from individuals who have not violated the trademark rights of others. For example, one arbitrator took away the domain "crew.com" from an individual and gave it to JCrew (who already owned "jcrew.com"). Another arbitrator took "corinthians.com" from a U.S. citizen who had posted biblical scriptures and gave it to a Brazilian soccer team named Corinthians. The policy needs to be improved to narrow the situations where a name can be taken away from a legitimate owner. There should be an inexpensive appeals process at ICANN to protect against inconsistent and wrongly decided decisions by ICANN designated arbitrators. Be sure to check out my platform page at http://64.82.55.205/tiller.html to see more specific proposals for reform of ICANN's domain dispute policy.
3. Vastly increase the availability of TLD's (such as ".child," or ".rel" for religion) to allow individuals and groups to easily search and self-identify on the Internet. There is no apparent reason, other than new cybersquatting, to artificially limit the number of new TLDs. The UDRP dispute resolution process is available for new cybersquatting. We must allow many more TLDs to be established to ensure the maximum level of free speech and entrepreneurship.
4. Use an auction system to allocate TLDs. Currently, the $50,000 nonrefundable fee is too high for some potential TLD operators, and too low -- a giveaway essentially -- for other potential TLDs. We need to let the market determine the value of these TLDs by having ICANN auction them off. Its a fair allocation method with clear precedent. The proceeds can be used to fund ICANN which is supposed to be financially self-supporting.
5. Protect Privacy and Security. ICANN must set guidelines for protection of personal information for those who register domain names. There are various systems that could be adopted, including one that requires disclosure for anyone accessing the Whois database to check for information on others.
6. Allow at-large membership to determine majority of board seats. To avoid the appearance, if not the possibility, of capture by certain inside interests, ICANN would be best served by having the majority, if not all, board members selected by the full Internet using community (the at-large membership). Technical aspects can still be delegated to the appropriate internal bodies of ICANN with board oversight.
7. Prevent government censorship of speech on the Internet. ICANN should not assist any government in limiting speech unless there is an immediate threat to life. Local laws should be relied upon rather than having ICANN become a policeman.
8. To ensure that no one country with a large population dominates a board seat in a voting region, ICANN needs to expand the number of at-large board seats per region, or restrict the number of terms a given country can hold the seat. Otherwise, Canadians will be unlikely to ever hold an at-large seat on ICANN.

MORE GENERAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley (Business and Public Policy)
• B.A (Mathematics) and J.D. (Law), Indiana University
• Chairman, icannVote.com
• Associate Professor of Business, Technology and Law, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas (Austin)
• Co-Director, Center for Business, Technology and Law, McCombs School of Busienss, University of Texas (Austin)
• Editor, Internet Law and Business (ICANN domain name cases reported)
• Domain Name Owner
• Visiting Faculty Member: Yale Law School; University of Pennsylvania Law School; and University of California, Berkeley
• Grant, National Academy of Science, 2000-2001 (Proliferation of Internet Patents)
• Grant, Society for Information Management, 1999-2000 (Internet Policy Issues)

ICANN-RELATED INTERESTS (CONFLICT OF INTERESTS)

I have not contracted with ICANN, nor do I have any investments in ICANN related businesses of which I am aware. I have never held any position with ICANN or an ICANN-related organization. I have no conflicts of interests but will divest of any if such are brought to my attention. While I am chairman of the information site icannVote.com, it has no official relationship with ICANN.I believe that I have sufficient independence from ICANN to be impartial.