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<DIV>With respect to the fairness to those who did not raise similar concerns or
couldn’t support the concerns raised at the last council meeting I join John’s
comment.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Best regards<BR><BR>Wolf-Ulrich<BR><BR></DIV>
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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=john@crediblecontext.com
href="mailto:john@crediblecontext.com">john@crediblecontext.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, June 26, 2013 12:41 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=maria.farrell@gmail.com
href="mailto:maria.farrell@gmail.com">Maria Farrell</A> ; <A
title=council@gnso.icann.org
href="mailto:council@gnso.icann.org">council@gnso.icann.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> RE: [council] FYI: NCSG Letter to the Board re.
Reconsideration Request 13-3</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV>Maria,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I am a fan of short-hand and jargon (it make life quicker and excludes the
uninitiated) but your letter should have more correctly said "<STRONG><EM>Some
members of</EM></STRONG> the GNSO Council expressed concern..." It is
clear there is no position taken and no unanimity.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>A fine but important point.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Cheers,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Berard</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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Original Message ---------
<DIV>Subject: [council] FYI: NCSG Letter to the Board re. Reconsideration
Request 13-3<BR>From: "Maria Farrell" <maria.farrell@gmail.com><BR>Date:
6/25/13 1:48 pm<BR>To: "council@gnso.icann.org"
<council@gnso.icann.org><BR><BR>
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<DIV>Dear Council colleagues,<BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Below for your information is a copy of a letter sent on behalf of the
NCSG to the Board of Directors, which was received by the Board (via Bruce
Tonkin's kind intercession) on 19 June. <BR></DIV>
<DIV>Bruce says the Board would be interested to meet and discuss the broad
concerns about the multistakeholder model raised in the reconsideration
request, and also confirms that the request itself will be discussed at the
BGC meeting of 25 June. <BR></DIV>
<DIV>If and when we have any scheduling information about a meeting with the
Board, we will share it so that others may be aware. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>All the best,<BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Maria</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Dear ICANN Board of Directors:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I am writing to you on behalf of the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group
(NCSG) and other concerned members of the ICANN community regarding the
harmful implications to the community-led multi-stakeholder policy development
model if the ICANN Board decides to adopt the rationale provided in the
recommendation of the Board Governance Committee (BGC) in response to the
NCSG's Request for Reconsideration (13-3). The rationale provided in the
BGC's recommendation, which appears to be drafted by over-reaching lawyers,
attempts to set a precedent that ICANN staff can over-rule the GNSO Council on
policy decisions at its own discretion. This decision has alarmed
community members beyond the NCSG and beyond those who were originally
concerned with the underlying issue that NCSG was initially probing of staff's
adoption of the "TM+50" policy for the Trademark Clearinghouse. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The GNSO Council expressed concern about the BGC decision rationale at
length during council's 13 June meeting; and I encourage all Board Members to
listen to <A href="http://t.co/ss2MwpdWEa" target=_blank>audio recording</A>
of the GNSO Council discussion or read the attached transcript to get a better
understanding the concerns of members of several different GNSO stakeholder
groups. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The rationale provided in the BGC decision, if adopted by the entire
board, would cement the change in ICANN's policy development model away from
the bottom-up community-led governance model to a top-down staff-driven model
with no checks on abuses or poor staff decisions. If the rationale
provided in this BGC decision is adopted by the Board, which goes well beyond
the narrow issue presented to it, ICANN threatens to undermine its own
legitimacy as a global governance institution, and it loses the ability to
label itself as a community-led bottom-up model for Internet governance.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>We understand the BGC's recommendation is on the agenda to be adopted on
25 June 2013 by the Board's New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC). Given the
Board's record of adopting all 15 BGC decisions that have come before it in
the last ten years, there is concern that this BGC recommendation will be
similarly adopted by the Board with little understanding or discussion of the
harm to ICANN's legitimacy and the multi-stakeholder model that this precedent
threatens. The handling of this reconsideration request has also raised
concerns about ICANN's "accountability" mechanism, which appears to allow the
same legal team that created and adopted a policy to later evaluate the
legitimacy of that policy's adoption.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><EM>We therefore respectfully request that the Board meet with
concerned members of the community including NCSG to permit a more complete
discussion and understanding of the concerns raised by the rationale provided
in the BGC decision and to allow for appropriate adjustments to the decision
before it is adopted by the Board.</EM></STRONG> We would gladly meet
with the Members of the ICANN Board during the Durban Meeting or before, at
the Board's convenience, to discuss this decision and welcome all members of
the community to join in the discussion. Please let us know if the
Board is available to meet with NCSG and others in the community on this
crucial issue at your earliest convenience. Thank you for your
consideration. We look forward to fruitful discussions going into Durban
and stand ready to provide whatever assistance is needed.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Truly,</DIV>
<DIV><SPAN>Robin</SPAN> Gross</DIV>
<DIV>NCSG
Chair</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>