Question: Does ICANN have a political function? - it establishes new gTLDs, such as .free speech, .racism - it enhances competition on the Registry/Registrar levels? - the UDRP turns out to be trademark biased - it doesn’t automatically redelegate the management of a ccTLD when a governmental authority asks for it?

Nominee Replies

Andy Mueller-Maguhn - posted on 2000-09-23 16:22:17 Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Politics is creating the ways rules of live and reality. Icann currently is creating the rules, in which virtual live and realities develop. Denying this is a crime on the entity. Reducing it to a market question means selling public space to the industry which is an even bigger crime. IMHO, or not. Jeanette Hofmann - posted on 2000-09-19 18:55:51 Yes, despite of what the board members state, ICANN's role is both technical and political. In my view, this is hybrid role is less a matter of choice than a consequence of the very nature of ICANN's tasks. For one, the management of the Net's name & number spaces affects all current and future users. At stake is the structure of a public space of growing importance. What else if not these matters would we describe as political in the real world? For another, the ongoing debate on the DNS is marked by classical distributional conflicts: What constitutes a right to a name, should trademark owners have privileged access, is cybersquatting an illegitimate business; all these questions deal with the problem of a fair distribution of public resources. I am of the opinion that political dimensions are inherent in all technologies. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that governments are the authorities best suited to take care of it. Alf Hansen - posted on 2000-09-18 16:24:26 Does ICANN have a political function? No, not in general politics, but in politics needed for the coordination of names and numbers. In The Internet names and numbers MUST be unique, and some minimum central coordination is needed toassure the basis for full interconnectivity. My motto is: ICANN keeps The Internet interconnected for Everyone. No decisions areyet made on new gTLDs. The criteria are not decided. The Registries are in a special situation (a kind of monopoly) and they should do as little as possible as non-commercial entities. Registrars are competing to provide the best service for the best price for the customers. Registries should not provide value added services. The UDRP may in practice be trademark biased because the gTLD registry implements it in a bad way (you have to agree to use UDRP in order to register, my view is that both the challanger and the challanged should have the choise to refuse to use the UDRP). The current UDRP is not designed for conflicts under ccTLDs. Automatic redelegation is not making the world better for any parties. Redelegation should follow a well documented process. This process is not documented well enough yet. You may call all this POLITICS, but in my view it is working on the minimum of policy needed to coordinate names and numbers in The Internet.