Re: [alac] Re: [ga] More ALAC Follies

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

Roberto,

The Niue government website details the following: 

"We will continue to pursue the .NU issue. We maintain
our policy of seeking a fair return from our domain
name managers, IUSN, from the many millions they
continue to earn from this Niue taoga, on an annual
basis.  The catchphrase that they continue to use, of
?free internet?, is in fact a service that has an
opportunity cost, measured in millions annually, in
lost revenues to all of us in Niue.  Our desire as a
government is to negotiate a fair distribution of the
revenues earned by the managers of the Niue domain
name .NU.     

Mr Speaker, and honourable members it is perhaps a
measure of these businessmen that they have made no
contribution whatsoever to any of our cyclone recovery
efforts at all.    This lack of common decency, good
faith and civic and moral responsibility to Niue
epitomises the way in which the .NU domain managers
have treated Niue since a Memorandum of Understanding
was signed in 1999.    That agreement as they have
pointed out to us, is a partnership, but it lacks many
things, one of which is a fair share of the domain
name registration profits."

I'm not concerned about whether the Internet Users
Society Niue "interacts" with the user community (all
businesses interact with their consumer base), but
rather whether this business group actually "is" the
Niue users or is it merely a device created by Bill
Semich's marketing department to create the illusion
of a users group.

When I attended the Melbourne session I spoke with
people from Niue that were opposed to the way the .nu
domain was being managed.  It seems like that
opposition continues unabated, and that the real users
in that community are still getting screwed.

So, have you certified a genuine users group, or have
you been duped into certifying the wolf in sheep's
cothing -- a supplier group?



--- Roberto Gaetano <alac_liaison@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Danny,
> [since you included the ga in your comment, please
> forward to the ga also my 
> reply]
> 
> Due diligence was performed. That included also
> documentation from the 
> government of niue (see http://www.gov.nu/). Of
> course, like in almost every 
> situation, you have elements for and against, and
> then make a decision. It 
> is clear that, should in the future the picture
> change, and should elements 
> against prevail, there's a mechanism for
> de-certification.
> 
> I guess the point is that we need to concentrate on
> whether the Internet 
> Users Society - Niue (http://www.niue.nu/) does
> interact with the user 
> community of the island, which it does.
> I am sure that Bill Semich runs the operation like a
> business, I had 
> contacts with him since before ICANN, and the fact
> that the government of 
> Niue feels to have the right to get control over the
> registry is completely 
> besides the point, IMHO: it is matter for IANA and
> the GAC, but not ALAC.
> 
> Regards,
> Roberto GAETANO
> ALAC
> ICANN BoD Liaison
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> >From: Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>
> >To: aizu@xxxxxxx, alac_liaison@xxxxxxxxxxx,
> vb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >CC: alac@xxxxxxxxx, ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >Subject: Re: [alac] RE: [alac-admin] Re: [ga] More
> ALAC Follies
> >Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2005 06:56:01 -0800 (PST)
> >
> >Izumi,
> >
> >The big question is this:  Has the ALAC been
> >manipulated?  Does the Internet Users Society -
> Niue
> >actually represent the interests of the island's
> users
> >or is it merely a "front" for a pornographic
> empire?
> >Did any of you during your period of "due
> diligence"
> >read the following article?
>
>http://www.abc.net.au/ra/pacbeat/stories/s1151774.htm
> >
> >NIUE: Government accuses Dot NU operators of
> >"manipulation"
> >
> >The US based company responsible for running Niue's
> >internet domain suffix .nu, has been accused by the
> >government of manipulating the country. In recent
> >weeks Niue has found itself in the news after a
> global
> >survey of websites alleged it had become a centre
> for
> >the internet porn industry. The report alleged the
> .nu
> >suffix was used by 2.9 million internet porn pages.
> >But Niue is pointing the finger at a US company
> >managing the .nu domain name.
> >
> >Presenter/Interviewer: Huey Fern Tay
> >Speakers: Justin Kamupala, Private Secretary to the
> >Premier of Niue
> >
> >KAMUPALA: "Well currently the company called
> Internet
> >Users Society Niue holds management rights to the
> >domain name, and the government has been trying to
> >wrest the management of the domain name back to the
> >government. It has been doing this for over the
> past
> >four years now, and has been unsuccessful so far."
> >
> >TAY: Why has it been so difficult to regain
> ownership
> >of dot n-u domain?
> >
> >KAMUPALA: "Well I believe well of course there were
> >commercial interests involved, there's also the
> issue
> >of whether there is in fact ownership by Niue of
> the
> >dot n-u, this is an issue which has been raised in
> the
> >GAC of ICAN, so in a sense it's not seen as
> property
> >as it were. It's difficult for us to try to wrest
> that
> >particular ownership back, that's why we're looking
> >into this issue with whether the management of it
> has
> >been basically on the benefit from the particular
> >country that it's for. In our opinion it hasn't
> been."
> >
> >TAY: Well recently there was a study done by a
> >computer security company in the US and well
> according
> >to the survey done by that company it revealed that
> >dot n-u domain hosted some three million
> pornographic
> >websites. But the president of dot n-u domain Mr
> Bill
> >Semich, he has refuted those findings saying that
> dot
> >n-u domain only has 100-thousand sites registered.
> Do
> >you believe there are only 100-thousand?
> >
> >KAMUPALA: "Unfortunately we don't have any idea how
> >many sites dot n-u is actually hosting."
> >
> >TAY: But does the Niue government feel that dot n-u
> >domain is not being totally transparent about their
> >figures, about registration figures?
> >
> >KAMUPALA: "That is possibly the case. They have
> >published some information in some magazine
> articles,
> >which indicates that there is a possibility of the
> >revenue that they derived from this is about eight
> >million dollars US, however nothing concrete has
> ever
> >been given to the government in regard to this."
> >
> >TAY: Well what has led the Niue government to
> believe
> >that they are being short-changed?
> >
> >KAMUPALA: "Well the government believes that we are
> >entitled to 20 per cent of the revenue, which is
> >derived from the use of the dot n-u. Unfortunately
> >this has not eventuated."
> >
> >TAY: Several prominent church leaders and
> government
> >officials around the Pacific have signed a petition
> in
> >the past supporting the Niue government's efforts
> to
> >regain ownership of the internet domain name dot
> n-u,
> >and in that petition they described the arrangement
> >between Niue government and the dot n-u domain
> limited
> >as a 'manipulation'. Do you believe that Niue has
> been
> >manipulated?
> >
> >KAMUPALA: "Yes I believe so, we were. In fact the
> >government was very naive at the time when the
> >particular persons who offered this to manage it
> for
> >us made a proposition to the government. So
> >unfortunately at the time we didn't have anyone in
> a
> >particular position who was adequately advised I
> >suppose."
> >
> >
> >
> >--- Izumi AIZU <aizu@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > > I quite agree with what Roberto wrote below.
> > >
> > > One thing we are facing is that there are few
> real
> > > user group/user community
> > > in most parts of the world who are interested in
> > > ICANN related activities.
> > >
> > > Therefore, unless other constituencies such as
> > > ccTLDs agree to support
> > > AtLarge - user participation - to ICANN process,
> > > solo effort by existing
> > > ALAC/ALS may not be as effective as we want.
> > >
> > > However, there should be a clear line between
> user
> > > participation
> > > and ccTLD registry interests. I have no
> ready-made
> > > answer how
> > > to make that clear, but I am aware of the
> 
=== message truncated ===



		
__________________________________ 
Yahoo! Music Unlimited 
Access over 1 million songs. Try it free. 
http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/