[IP] more on VeriSign sues ICANN

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+@ux13.sp.cs.cmu.edu
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 14:41:28 -0800
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Subject: Re: [IP] : VeriSign sues ICANN
To: dave@farber.net
Cc: lauren@vortex.com

Dave,

This falls squarely into the "reap what you sow" category.  Many of us
(including yourself) have been warning for years that the current Internet
"governance" situation vis-a-vis ICANN (and VeriSign) was untenable, but
interest in dealing with this has been anything but enthusiastic by either
the well-heeled corporate masters of the Internet or by the folks at
the Department of Commerce.

Now we're faced with a "Godzilla vs. Mothra" battle, where the Internet --
and its users -- will likely take the brunt of the collateral damage.

VeriSign acts as if the Internet is its personal garden ripe for picking,
while ICANN (notwithstanding being on the correct side of the VeriSign
"Site Finder" battle so far) is largely responsible for leading us into
these kinds of messes in the first place.

It's time to move beyond these two organizations that so many now love to
hate.  The PFIR document "Overcoming ICANN: Forging Better Paths for the
Internet" -- now almost exactly two years old -- proffers one possible
path ( http://www.pfir.org/statements/icann ).

If we don't seriously get down to fixing the way the Net is run,
"here there be monsters" could well become the permanent slogan
of the Internet itself.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@pfir.org or lauren@vortex.com or lauren@privacyforum.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, Fact Squad - http://www.factsquad.org
Co-Founder, URIICA - Union for Representative International Internet
                     Cooperation and Analysis - http://www.uriica.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy

 - - -

>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Meeks, Brock (MSNBCi)" <Brock.Meeks@MSNBC.COM>
> Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 13:24:25
> To:dave@farber.net
> Subject: VeriSign sues ICANN
>
> Straight from the press release:
>
> VeriSign Files Lawsuit Against ICANN
>
> MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - February 26, 2004 - VeriSign, Inc. the leading 
provider of critical infrastructure services for the Internet and 
telecommunications netwo
> rks, today announced that it has filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in the 
Central District of California against the Internet Corporation for 
Assigned Names a
> nd Numbers (ICANN).
>
> The suit alleges that ICANN overstepped its contractual authority and 
improperly attempted to regulate VeriSign's business in violation of its 
charter and it
> s agreements with VeriSign. By straying from its charter and agreement 
to be a technical coordination body, VeriSign asserts that ICANN has 
improperly attemp
> ted to become the de facto regulator of the domain name system and in 
doing so stifled the introduction of new services that benefit Internet 
users and promo
> te the growth of the Internet.
>
> [snip]
>  

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