The Governmental Advisory Committee of ICANN and its agenda

[Michael Sondow <msondow@iciiu.org>]

GAC and ICANN Board-

The re-written but basically unchanged GAC agenda for its May 25th
meeting has been posted at
http://www.noie.gov.au/docs/gacmtg2_agenda.htm., and is reproduced
below. 

Jay Fenello's well-posed questions of last week remain unanswered.
Specifically:

1) What is this "report from Mike Roberts" concerning changes in
gTLD registrations, legality of delegations, and litigation over the
Infrastructure Trust Fund monies?

2) How is it that these ccTLD policy matters are being discussed in
camera, and before the formation of the ccTLD constituency of the
DNSO, which according to ICANN's bylaws has prerogative over them?

3) Why is there no report, to counterbalance that of Francis Gurry,
from the broad opposition to the WIPO recommendations?

4) Why has this meeting, at which major issues regarding the future
of the DNS and the Internet are apparently being discussed if not
implemented, been scheduled for the same time that the
much-contested DNSO constituencies are being formed, thus
effectively eliminating any possibility of attendance at it by the
interested parties?

The on-going manipulation of this process, as implied in the secret
activities of this committeee and its agenda, parallels what has
been done with regard to the registrar/registrant relationship:
policy decisions made in camera in disregard of the prerogatives of
the DNSO and any effective input from the Internet community. The
questions posed by Jay Fenello and others, when this agenda first
appeared, have not been answered by Mr. Roberts, the ICANN board, or
Mr. Twomey, apparently because they cannot be answered honestly
without admitting, at the same time, that this committee and its
agenda are designed to circumvent public and popular
decision-making.

Furthermore, as the issues on the GAC's agenda concern international
trade and commerce, we believe that the scope of debate on them must
be broadened to include not only the internet comunity that will be
affected by policy decisions concerning them but also by the World
Trade Organization, which has a mandate under international law to
participate in the regulation of such cross-national activities, and
to that end we are sending this information to the WTO and asking
for their intervention.

The ICIIU has participated in this process in the spirit of the
United States Government's White Paper. However, it has become clear
that neither Beckwith Burr, the representative of the U.S.
Department of Commerce, emitting agency of that document, nor the
unelected and synthetic board of ICANN has any intention of
following the provisions and exigencies of the White Paper; we
therefore believe that the time has come for supervision of the
supervisors, and are communicating with the World Trade
Organization, and may communicate with UNCTAD, the OECD, UNCITRAL,
and other organizations concerned with world trade, to that end.

Michael Sondow

============================================================
International Congress of Independent Internet Users (ICIIU) 
        http://www.iciiu.org       iciiu@iciiu.org 
============================================================


...................................................
    GOVERNMENTAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE

               Meeting II

           9:00am to 6:00pm

             25 May 1999

    Hotel Adlon, Unter den Linden 77
           Berlin, Germany



          DRAFT AGENDA

1.Welcome

2.Internal Communications - Practices and procedures

3.Draft Operating Principles - Revision 2 

4.Report from ICANN / EU / ITU on current administrative
arrangements concerning ccTLDs, including: 

     Access to information for users 
     Basis of delegation decisions 

5.Report from Mike Roberts, President of ICANN, on: 

     The legal delegation and practical relationship between
ICANN,     governments and ccTLD administrators, 
     Changes in policy for registrations under a gTLD (for example,
as occurred in .edu and as undertaken by NSI), 
     Infrastructure Trust Fund - Update on progress and the
litigation process.

6.Funding for ICANN 

7.Report from Francis Gurry (WIPO) on Intellectual property issues -
in particular, issues with regard to "cybersquatting, " the
speculation of domain names as property and establishment of
ownership rights, and GAC advice to the ICANN Board on the WIPO
Report. 

8.Report from USA and ITU on applicability of specific business
rules / regimes to ccTLD's which are classified as "open" or
"restricted" 

9.Report from France, UK and Australia on Jurisdiction and
Territories 

10.Discussion on Registrar Accreditation Agreements 

11.Communique / Media Release 

12.Any Other Business 

13.Next meeting 

14.Open Meeting - Dialogue with interested members of the Internet
community