Re: [ga] Emergency resolution on .xxx recall -- and the destruction of ICANN's integrity

["Richard Henderson" <richardhenderson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is truly sickening.

ICANN purports to be a global, bottom up organisation. It purports to have processes and methodology, to which all constituencies have had the opportunity to contribute.

But on the whim of one country's government, all this can be swept aside.

Because, in truth, ICANN is merely a US puppet. The DoC decides to pull the strings. ICANN jumps.

This is *exactly* why i have been arguing for years that a convincing, global, one-member one-vote At Large of the world's internet users should be given authority at the heart of ICANN's mechanisms.

To give ICANN global authority.

To give ICANN independence from governmental interference.

If the US intends to use ICANN as its front for dominating and controlling the Internet on its own terms, then I'm sorry, ICANN's mandate should be handed to someone else... ask WSIS for directions! But then, ICANN's mandate and very existence has always beed dependent on USG.

On a separate note, I object strongly to right-wing conservative religious groups in one country telling the rest of the world what attitude we should have to porn and what attitude we should have to sex and sexual diversity.

It is abundantly clear that the .xxx domain is merely a labelling mechanism that might help direct webmasters and the public to a sector of the net that concerned parents etc can lock off from their children. Sure it wouldn't be infallible, but its an intelligent agenda which has been discussed and explored, and been pursued according to agreed ICANN processes.

It is unacceptable that policy should be driven or re-directed either by religious fundamentalists or by the government of a single country that has a right-wing moralistic agenda.

ICANN loses all credibility if it just gives in to this interference in its own processes.

It is time a large number of At Large representatives should be democratically elected to the heart of the ICANN Board, to demonstrate that ICANN is in fact a truly global and independent organisation, accountable not to USG, and certainly not to the religious right, but to the internet users of the world who actually use the internet.

Yrs,

Richard Henderson
www.atlarge.org

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Danny Younger 
  To: ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 5:27 PM
  Subject: [ga] Emergency resolution on .xxx recall -- and the destruction of ICANN's integrity


   From the Non-Commercial Discussion list:
Date:         Tue, 16 Aug 2005 10:32:19 -0400
Reply-To:     Milton Mueller <[log in to unmask]>
Sender:       Non-Commercial User Constituency <[log in to unmask]>
From:         Milton Mueller <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Emergency resolution on .xxx recall - and the destruction of
              ICANN's integrity
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
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Many of us have warned for years that the US's unilateral political
power over ICANN was a problem. Too many people didn't listen...
What is at stake here is the very model of the Internet as a private
sector and civil society-driven institution, and as an INTERNATIONAL
institution...
ICANN participants must stand up for the integrity of the institution
as a global, legitimate policy making system. One government cannot be
given an arbitrary and unlimited power to reverse the result of a
decision making process that has gone on for five years and consumed
millions of dollars in resources, just because a domestic political
constituency doesn't like the result...

It is essential for ALAC, NCUC and other civil society
actors to unite on this. 

I will be drafting a proposed short resolution. I hope to transmit it
to these lists soon.


Dr. Milton Mueller
Syracuse University School of Information Studies
http://www.digital-convergence.org
http://www.internetgovernance.org
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