IP: PETITION TO ICANN AND THE US DEPT OF COMMERCE

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>
>May 10, 1999
>PETITION TO ICANN AND THE US DEPT OF COMMERCE
>
>On May 6, 1999, ICANN posted the following statement was posted
>on its web site at http://www.icann.org/wipo/wipo.htm
>
>"The ICANN Board of Directors will consider the WIPO Final
>Report, including its annexes, at its May 27 meeting and will
>take appropriate action, which may include from [sic] seeking
>further comments on the recommendations, referring of some or
>all of them to other ICANN entities, and/or adopting certain of
>the recommendations."
>
>The undersigned strongly object to the last phrase in this
>sentence, referring to "adopting certain of the
>recommendations." We wish to see any reference to "adoption"
>removed from the Berlin meeting agenda.
>
>Under the "bottom up" philosophy articulated in the White Paper
>and in ICANN's own by-laws, important decisions regarding domain
>name policy were supposed to be passed up to ICANN's board by
>the Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO). The DNSO does
>not exist yet. ICANN has encouraged numerous individuals and
>organizations to make substantial investments in the creation of
>the DNSO and its constituencies, with the promise that
>good-faith participation in the process would give them a voice
>in policy making. Those expectations would be unjustly
>frustrated if ICANN adopted any recommendations of the WIPO
>proposals in Berlin.
>
>ICANN's current board was appointed on a temporary basis and was
>not elected by a membership. Its sole mandate is to get the
>organization started and to fill the gaps in its membership,
>board and by-laws. It is not appropriate for a board with
>interim status to make lasting policy on such a sensitive and
>complex matter. It is, in fact, a cause for great concern for
>ICANN even to publicly propose adopting such proposals at this
>juncture.
>
>The WIPO recommendations comprise over 120 pages of dense legal
>prose. The final report will have been out for public
>consideration only three weeks when the Berlin meeting is
>convened. Whether one supports or opposes the proposals, it is
>undeniable that they will have a profound and permanent impact
>on domain name registrations and on international intellectual
>property rights. No legitimate purpose can be served by hasty
>adoption or by short-circuiting the deliberative process that
>ICANN was created to foster. Furthermore, we question the
>ability of the current Board to properly assess the WIPO
>recommendations and comments about them amidst the flood of
>comments and documents pertaining to other important matters,
>such as the DNSO, ASO, and PSO formation, the definition of the
>constituencies, and the Membership Advisory Committee
>recommendations.
>
>We feel that the whole idea of ICANN would be undermined if the
>interim board were to make fundamental and permanent changes in
>domain name policy with inadequate information, without even the
>possibility of consultation with a DNSO and the other supporting
>organizations, and without members. The overall effect would be
>highly destructive of the trust and cooperation that is required
>to run the Internet properly.
>
>We urge the Board to wait until the DNSO is formed and then send
>the WIPO report to the DNSO for the DNSO's consideration.
>
>Signed:
>Laina Raveendran Greene, GetIT Pte Ltd., WIPO Panel of Experts,
>SINGAPORE
>Ellen and Peter Rony, Authors, Domain Name Handbook, USA
>Milton Mueller, Syracuse University School of Information
>Studies, USA
>Lawrence Lessig, Harvard University, USA
>David J. Farber, University of Pennsylvania, USA
>Kathy Kleiman, Esq., Counsel, Domain Name Rights Coalition, USA
>Scott Bradner, Harvard University USA
>Anthony M. Rutkowski, USA
>James V. DeLong, USA
>Dan Steinberg SYNTHESIS Law & Technology, CANADA
>Harold Feld, USA
>Tressa Kirby, VRx, CANADA
>Richard Sexton, VRx, CANADA
>Gene Marsh, AnyCAST, USA
>David J. Steele, USA
>Gordon Cook, The Cook Report on the Internet, USA
>Karl Auerbach, USA
>Image Online Design, Inc. USA
>Jay Fenello, Iperdome, Inc. USA
>Patrick Greenwell, Telocity, USA
>Mikki Barry, Esq. USA
>Eric Weisberg, Internet Texoma, USA
>