Re: [ga] A Fool's Paradise
Bret Fausett wrote: But I would ask everyone not to discredit the people who came to ICANN later, who know little about this history, and now are working to build these RALOs and ICANN At Large Structures. This is valuable work, even if it falls far short of our longer term goals. I hate to disagree with Bret, and I admire his ability to hope that lemons can be turned into lemonade .. or straw into gold. But the ALAC falls so short of what has been promised that it isn't even comparable. The ALAC system is a sop, not a solution. Indeed some, such as myself, consider the ALAC, particularly as it replaces actual elections, to be the internet-governance version of serfdom, a purpose that I believe was completely intended by its designers. And they designed well. As compared to red carpet treatment that ICANN gives to trademark and other privileged industrial segments, the ALAC is an inexcusable and unacceptable system of exclusion and repression of the people who make up the community of internet users. The ALAC is a product of a septic conception and even if it were to reach its potential, it would still be inadequate and it would not redress the fact that it leaves the community of internet users as observers rather than participants, much less than the dominant participants that was part of ICANN birth promise. From my point of view the best, and only, answer to the ALAC is "no". This does not mean that those who are trying to work within the ALAC format are in some way misguided or bad; but they have vastly more optimism that I have. --karl--
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