[CWG-Stewardship] Remember to send questions and comments to legal advice from Sidley Austin

[Andrew Sullivan]

Hi,

On Fri, Apr 10, 2015 at 09:52:22PM +0000, Milton L Mueller wrote:

>  That depends on why one thinks the current situation is
> dissatisfying. I, and most of the rest of the world, thought it was
> unacceptable because a single national government had unilateral
> control and oversight authority over a global resource, the DNS.

I have two reactions to this.  On the one hand, I agree that it's
pretty galling, and I think it ought to be sorted out.  On the other
hand, the political reality makes serious interference an extremely
grave incident.  And, the UN GA meets in New York, after all.  So the
mere fact that a US administration is formally but not practically
involved in the administrative arrangements doesn't seem like the
biggest deal in the world, to me.[1]

I am concerned only that we deliver a model that is unlikely to render
_effective_ control, over the short and long terms, to any one party
(or collusion of interests).  Moreover, my view has been that we're
moving control over IANA only (to the extent there is that), and not
over all the related policy-making organizations.  I therefore think
we ought to focus on the narrow questions, and not attempt to solve a
huge array of problems.

If we try to construct a new oversight body (that's what, after all,
creating a steward would mean), it will necessarily lead us to explore
all the oversight issues that have ever consumed ICANN since its
founding.  We'll also, I suggest, get it wrong, and end up with a new
structure that could be gamed in new and unanticipated ways.  If we
try instead to work on something that is narrowly constrained to the
IANA functions that actually need to be done, we have some hope of
creating something (and creating something on time for the
transition).

Note that part of my concern is that we do this in time: in my
opinion, if we don't achieve our goal before the end of this
(calendar) year, we won't achieve it at all.  Permitting the perfect
to be the enemy of the good (enough) in this case would be terrible.

Best regards,

A (as always, only for myself)

[1] Full disclosure: I'm a dual US-Canada citizen who never lived in
the US before 2013.  I grew up with the full measure of Canadian
border-raised resentment of the US, and an additional measure from
having to file US tax returns even when I had no US income.  I happen
to live in the US now, but am right now listening to the news from the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.  You may judge my US-interestedness
as you like.

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
ajs at anvilwalrusden.com