[ga] Why ICANN should publish Miriam Sapiro's report

["Richard Henderson" <richardhenderson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In mid-July Miriam Sapiro and Summit Strategies International submitted a report "Evaluation of the New gTLDs: Policy and Legal Issues". This report was part of the New gTLD evaluation process, overseen by Sebastien Bachollet. The report has been long-awaited, and raises concerns which may be relevant to policy development for future gTLDs. 
But where is it? 

Have the ICANN staff and Board published this report anywhere on the ICANN website? Is it in the public domain? For the sake of openness and transparency (and to benefit informed participation by all constituencies) is it going to be published? 

According to the presentation given in Kuala Lumpur on 22nd July 2004, the report had already been submitted to ICANN and included (among others) these findings: 

The Start-Up periods of registries like .info and .biz were reported as "raising concerns". "The Sunrise period, without screening or verification, led to serious abuses." It added that "the landrush allocation methods enabled gaming of the system". 

"Interviews raised questions about enforcement" in implementing registration restrictions in .biz. And data sampling brought to light "questionable registrations" in relation to the restrictions that were supposed to be in place. 

"The Registries indicated there had been no major lawsuits" or legal or regulatory problems "that had not been considered at the outset". (I find this statement quite surprising in the context of .biz) 

ICANN: Please could we have access to Miriam Sapiro's report? 

Robert Connelly, the Afilias Director who resigned over the failure of the start-up processes, described the .info Sunrise as "an abomination". 

Registrars were caught out gaming the system and exploiting their registrar privilege to make mass registrations for themselves. 

Registrars in the .info cartel failed to adhere to their own Registry-Registrar Agreements. 

Many consumers were hugely inconvenienced and unfairly treated by the failure of ICANN's processes, and the abuse of those processes by Registry directors or their registrar companies. 

Requests for responses to fair and legitimate concerns were met with stony silence from Dan Halloran at ICANN. 840 days later (yes, over two years) and despite extending my request for a response to Paul Twomey, my questions (also kindly published at ICANNWatch) have been totally ignored. 

If not for the sake of those effected by ICANN's failed policies last time, then at least so we may learn from those failures for future gTLD launches, these serious concerns should be answered and debated. 

At the very least, I hope ICANN will make public the entire report presented to them by Miriam Sapiro. It's been 44 days since she gave it to them. 

How many seconds does it take to ftp text to the ICANN website? 

Richard Henderson