IP: NYT article on ICANN and WIPO

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

>To: jeri@nytimes.com
>From: edyson@edventure.com (Esther Dyson)
>
>Jeri -
>
>In our conversation on Thursday, I said  to you that we had endorsed many of
>the "principles" of the WIPO report, most notably uniform dispute
>resolution, but not the specific recomemendations. 
>
>  I  suggested that you consult the press release and resolutions for
>details, which include  separate approaches to three separate
>categories/sections of the report (and which you to some extent outline
>later in the story). We did, as many public comments had advised us to,
>refer the second two categories (as opposed to approaches we had de facto
>already adopted in our registrar accreditation guidelines) to the DNSO. In
>other words, though the second paragraph of the story and subsequent details
>were better, the lede was seriously misleading.  What more can I say?  
>
>Unfortunately, these seemingly  subtle distinctions are important.  (For
>everyone: The details are at
>http://www.icann.org/berlin/berlin-resolutions.html and
>http://www.icann.org/berlin/berlin-details.html.)
>
>
>Esther
>
>                                                                    
>                                                                    
>
>
>           May 28, 1999
>
>
>           Internet Board Backs Rules to Limit
>           Cybersquatters
>
>           By JERI CLAUSING 
>
>                The board of the Internet's new oversight organization on Thursday
>                endorsed a controversial set of recommendations for cracking
>           down on so-called cybersquatters, who register trademarks and other
>           popular words as Internet addresses. 
>
>           Esther Dyson, interim chairman of the organization, the Internet
>           Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, emphasized that the
>           board's endorsement merely affirmed the broader principles of the
>           recommendations, which were issued last month by the World
>           Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an arm of the United
>           Nations. Many of the details, she said, would be open to amendment. 
>
>           The board deferred final adoption of the
>           recommendations until they can be reviewed by
>           one of ICANN's newly formed member groups.
>           Absent from that group, however, is the
>           constituency that critics say have the most to lose
>           under the recommendations: individuals and
>           non-commercial interests who have already
>           registered Internet addresses and could have them
>           taken away. 
>
>           Like everything surrounding the Clinton
>           Administration's process for handing administration
>           of the Internet to ICANN, the board's action was
>           immediately criticized as contrary to its charge to
>           be a "bottom's up" organization and follow the lead
>           of its worldwide constituents. 
>
>           Brian O'Shaughnessy, a spokesman for Network Solutions Inc., which
>           has held an exclusive government contract for registering names in the
>           top-level domains of .com, .net and org since 1993, said after
>Thursday's
>           action that ICANN was envisioned "as a limited standard-setting body
>           which is consensus based." But he said that when the board begins
>           making such decisions, "It's top down instead of bottoms up." 
>
>           A. Michael Froomkin, a University of Miami law professor who advised
>           WIPO on the recommendations and who has been critical of some of its
>           major provisions, said he was pleased that the ICANN endorsement
>           applied only to the broader dispute resolution principles. Three other
>           chapters, including that recommending that ICANN establish a system
>           for protecting not only trademarks but other famous words, was
>referred
>           to the membership committee without recommendation. 
>
>           Still, he questioned the need for the board to take any action yet. 
>
>           "Why are they endorsing things before they send them to the supporting
>           organization for review? " he asked. 
>
>           The unanimous endorsement of the principles by ICANN's board came
>           during an eight-hour closed board meeting in Berlin, where the board
>           also finalized a $5.9 million budget that will be financed in part
>by a $1 a
>           year fee on every domain name registered and on fees and dues from
>           companies ICANN approves to begin competing with Network
>           Solutions. 
>
>           In addition, the board approved the structure of two of three
>supporting
>           groups that will make up the nonprofit corporation's membership. 
>
>           One of those three is the Domain Name Supporting Organization
>           (DNSO), which has been charged with making recommendations to
>           ICANN on how and when to add new top-level domains like .com to
>           the global network. 
>
>           Its first order of business, however, is to carry out rules
>governing the
>           registration of domain names. Specifically, ICANN asked the new group
>           to begin drafting a plan on how to move forward with the WIPO
>           recommendations. 
>
>           "It's clear that this is urgent so we sent that right to the DNSO
>saying that
>           we basically support the WIPO report but there are issues about how to
>           implement it," Dyson said. 
>
>           The WIPO proposal has been criticized as favoring trademark holders
>           and wealthy corporate interests over small businesses, nonprofit
>groups
>           and individual Internet users. 
>
>           Although the board action is an official endorsement of the WIPO
>           principals, Dyson said the recommendations are still "very much" open
>           for change by the domain name supporting organization. 
>
>           But that group is still lacking one of its seven constituencies:
>the group
>           that is supposed to represent individual and non-commercial domain
>           name holders. The other six constituencies - representing groups like
>           trademark holders, registries and Internet service providers - were
>           approved by the board Thursday. 
>
>           "These guys are stragglers," Dyson said. "They basically did not come
>           together with a proposal. We hope to have that resolved in June. We
>           told them to come back to us." 
>
>           Despite the missing link, Dyson said the DNSO has been asked to begin
>           work immediately on the WIPO report so that the board can adopt some
>           of its provisions at its next board meeting in Santiago, Chile, in
>August. 
>
>                                      ICANN on Thursday also accepted
>                                      an application for the Protocol
>                                      Supporting Organization, which will
>                                      deal with more technical aspects of
>                                      the Internet's architecture. It expects
>                                      to formally recognize a third group,
>                                      the Address Supporting Organization
>                                      in Santiago. 
>
>           Thursday's board meeting - the third formal meeting of the interim
>           ICANN board -- followed a daylong public hearing where the board
>           took comment on all of the items on its closed meeting agenda. It also
>           discussed the progress, or lack thereof, in opening the domain name
>           registration business to competition. 
>
>           ICANN was formed last year to take over the administrative
>functions of
>           the Internet that previously were conducted by government contractors
>           and to open the registration process to competition. Last month it
>chose
>           the first five companies to test a shared registration system built by
>           Network Solutions. 
>
>           The test phase officially began April 26, but none of the five
>companies
>           has yet been able to go live and begin registering names in the
>top-level
>           domains of .com, .net and org. 
>
>           Ken Stubbs, who represents the only nonprofit entity participating
>in the
>           test, the Internet Council of Registrars, complained to the board that
>           important software from Network Solutions does not work, and that the
>           non-disclosure agreement Network Solutions made the test participants
>           sign prohibits them from discussing the test problems with ICANN. 
>
>           Dyson said she was disturbed by Stubbs comments. 
>
>           "My goal had been for the test to be a source of information not
>just for
>           the people directly involved in the test but for everyone who
>wants to be
>           a registrar down the road," she said. 
>
>           O'Shaughnessy said the non-disclosure agreement was a standard
>           contract meant to protect the company's proprietary information. 
>
>           "There is nothing particularly unique about it," he said. "They
>are holding
>           it up as if it's restrictive, but it's a standard NDA. 
>
>           The reason the test information has not yet been shared with ICANN is
>           simple, O'Shaughnessy said: "ICANN hasn't signed the non-disclosure
>           agreement." 
>
>
>Esther Dyson                    Always make new mistakes!
>chairman, EDventure Holdings
>interim chairman, Internet Corp. for Assigned Names & Numbers
>edyson@edventure.com
>1 (212) 924-8800
>1 (212) 924-0240 fax
>104 Fifth Avenue (between 15th and 16th Streets; 20th floor)
>New York, NY 10011 USA
>http://www.edventure.com                    http://www.icann.org
>
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