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<p class="MsoNormal">Further elaboration of NTIA’s current stance vis-à-vis ICANN and new gTLDs…<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://domainincite.com/us-says-it-will-not-block-the-new-gtld-program/">http://domainincite.com/us-says-it-will-not-block-the-new-gtld-program/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><a href="http://domainincite.com/us-says-it-will-not-block-the-new-gtld-program/"><span style="color:blue">US
says it will not block the new gTLD program</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><a href="http://domainincite.com/about"><span style="color:blue">Kevin Murphy</span></a>, December 9, 2011, 17:06:18 (UTC),
<a href="http://domainincite.com/category/domain-policy/" title="View all posts in Domain Policy">
<span style="color:blue">Domain Policy</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NTIA boss Larry Strickling has come out in support of ICANN and its new top-level domains program, warning
that its opponents “provide ammunition” to authoritarian regimes.</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Speaking in Washington DC yesterday, Strickling warned that organizations fighting to put a stop to the new
gTLD program risk provoking a UN takeover of the internet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In a strongly worded defense of the six-year-old ICANN multistakeholder process that created the program, he
said:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">we are now seeing parties that did not like the outcome of that multistakeholder process trying to collaterally
attack the outcome and seek unilateral action by the U.S. government to overturn or delay the product of a six-year multistakeholder process that engaged folks from all over the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The multistakeholder process does not guarantee that everyone will be satisfied with the outcome. But it is
critical to preserving the model of Internet governance that has been so successful to date that all parties respect and work through the process and accept the outcome once a decision is reached.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">When parties ask us to overturn the outcomes of these processes, no matter how well-intentioned the request,
they are providing “ammunition” to other countries who attempt to justify their unilateral actions to deny their citizens the free flow of information on the Internet.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">This we will not do. There is too much at stake here.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Strickling is assistant secretary at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which oversees
the US government’s relationship with ICANN and IANA.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He’s made similar remarks in support of the multistakeholder model in the past, but never quite as firmly or
directly aimed at opponents of the new gTLD expansion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">While he was diplomatic enough not to single out any one group, he was pretty clearly referring to the recently
formed Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><a href="http://domainincite.com/massive-group-forms-to-kill-off-new-gtlds/" target="_blank" title="DomainIncite"><span style="color:blue">CRIDO
was formed</span></a> by the Association of National Advertisers to fight new gTLDs. Yesterday, it had its day on Capitol Hill, but
<a href="http://domainincite.com/notes-from-the-senate-new-gtlds-hearing/" target="_blank" title="Domainincite">
<span style="color:blue">failed to convince Senators</span></a> that the program should be stopped.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">But Strickling did sound a note of caution about new gTLDs, saying that he agreed with Sen. Jay Rockefeller,
who expressed concern about possible negative impacts of the expansion:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">We agree with the Chairman’s concerns over how this program will be implemented and its potential negative effect
if not implemented properly. We will closely monitor the execution of the program and are committed to working with stakeholders, including U.S. industry, to mitigate any unintended consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">But the minutiae of the Applicant Guidebook was not Strickling’s focus. Instead, it was the wider political
picture.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The threat of an International Telecommunications Union takeover of the internet’s policy-making functions has
plagued ICANN for almost as long as it has existed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Strickling noted that the ITU’s World Conference on International Telecommunications is coming up one year from
now, and that some nations will attempt to usurp ICANN.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Some nations appear to prefer an Internet managed and controlled by nation-states.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">We expect that some states will attempt to rewrite the regulation in a manner that would exclude the contributions
of multistakeholder organizations and instead provide for heavy-handed governmental control of the Internet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">For the ANA and CRIDO,
<a href="http://www.ntia.doc.gov/speechtestimony/2011/remarks-assistant-secretary-strickling-practicing-law-institutes-29th-annual-te" target="_blank" title="NTIA">
<span style="color:blue">Strickling’s remarks</span></a> are a huge setback.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The ANA has previously said that it planned to use all three branches of the US political system — lobbying
Congress and the NTIA, or taking ICANN to court — to achieve its ends.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Senate clearly wasn’t interested yesterday and the NTIA has now confirmed that it’s on ICANN’s side.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">That leaves only one option.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:navy">Philip S. Corwin, Founding Principal</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:navy">"Luck is the residue of design" -- Branch Rickey</span></i></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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