<div dir="ltr">I don't know why anyone is surprised at the response from those Board members that were on the call.<div><br></div><div>This will be the third time that the internet community has formally recommended that there be some kind of formal oversight of ICANN; ICANN corporate has knocked it down each time.</div><div><br></div><div>In October last year, knowing that this exact scenario was going to play out, I asked both Crocker and Chehade at the press conference at the Los Angeles meeting whether they were opposed to some kind of oversight. </div><div><br></div><div>This is what I wrote at the time:</div><div><br></div><div>---------</div><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,FreeSans,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px">This is not the first time that the ICANN community has tried to create a mechanism that would stop the board from being the ultimate decider of everything. It’s not even the second time. It will be the third time that there has been a formal recommendation that ICANN’s board be subject to oversight. And so far, it is determined not to budge.</p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,FreeSans,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px">When we asked ICANN’s CEO, Fadi Chehade, point-blank whether ICANN was opposed to an oversight mechanism, he told us that he couldn’t respond until there was a further formal recommendation. “Let’s let the community speak,” he urged, before saying that to be considered, the idea “would require complete consensus and more extended dialogue.”</p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,FreeSans,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px">ICANN’s chairman, Steve Crocker, was more forthcoming but was clearly opposed to the idea. He has been on the ICANN board for 12 years and so seen repeated efforts to make the board accountable beyond itself.</p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,FreeSans,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px">“This could be a slippery slope,” he told us. “I know that it doesn’t feel right that the board reviews its own decisions but the harder part is: what do you do? We have all been raised to believe in the separation of powers and legislation versus judicial, but the role of the judiciary is not to reverse or supersede decisions. The primary force is whether the community at large feels it has had a fair hearing.”</p><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,FreeSans,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:21px">Changing the current situation, he argued, would “create more problems than it solves.”</span></div><div>---------</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/23/icann-accountability-internet-health/?page=3">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/23/icann-accountability-internet-health/?page=3</a></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>So rather than everyone getting upset about the inevitable, what I would really like to see is this group recognize that the Board and the staff will do all they can to prevent a real enforceable oversight and then prepare and respond in advance.</div><div><br></div><div>If this group thinks that a real legal right is needed to enforce change then it must accept that it will have to force that past the Board. And past ICANN's lawyers who will claim it is either impossible or illegal or would be irreparably damaging to the organization.</div><div><br></div><div>This is not going to be resolved through compromise, or teleconferences, or drafts. It is a line-in-the-sand issue: legal right or no legal right.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Kieren</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 10:28 AM, Paul Rosenzweig <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:paul.rosenzweig@redbranchconsulting.com" target="_blank">paul.rosenzweig@redbranchconsulting.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div><p class="MsoNormal">All<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">In preparation for our call today, I wanted to share with you the following that I pulled from the hearing that the Senate Commerce Committee held earlier this year:<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">***<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%">The Chairman: Will the ICANN Board send a proposal to NTIA that lessens the Board’s power or authority?<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%">Mr. Chehade: We will if the community and the stakeholders present us with a proposal. We will give it to NTIA, and we committed already that we will not change the proposal, that if we have views on that proposal, we should participate with the community. Once that proposal comes from our stakeholders, we will pass it on to NTIA <b>as is</b>.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%">***<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%">I would read this as a commitment from ICANN and the Board.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%">Paul<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Paul Rosenzweig<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Red Branch Consulting, PLLC<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">509 C St. NE<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Washington, DC 20002<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:paul.rosenzweigesq@redbranchconsulting.com" target="_blank">paul.rosenzweig@redbranchconsulting.com</a> <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">O: <a href="tel:%2B1%20%28202%29%20547-0660" value="+12025470660" target="_blank">+1 (202) 547-0660</a><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">M: <a href="tel:%2B1%20%28202%29%20329-9650" value="+12023299650" target="_blank">+1 (202) 329-9650</a><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">VOIP: <a href="tel:%2B1%20%28202%29%20738-1739" value="+12027381739" target="_blank">+1 (202) 738-1739</a><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Skype: paul.rosenzweig1066<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.redbranchconsulting.com/" target="_blank">www.redbranchconsulting.com</a><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.paulrosenzweigesq.com/" target="_blank">www.paulrosenzweigesq.com</a> <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://www.redbranchconsulting.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19&Itemid=9" target="_blank">Link to my PGP Key</a><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>
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