[CWG-Stewardship] ICANN fighting separabiity in the numbers space

[Milton L Mueller]

I am not at the ARIN meeting and I am only seeing the slides without hearing the presentation.  Let me suggest it is very premature to conclude there is some sort of unsolvable problem.

MM: ??? No one suggested there was an insoluble problem. The point was that the RIRs, while currently satisfied with ICANN's IANA service and don't want to change providers as part of the transition, will insist on the right to terminate the contract for IANA services if they are dissatisfied. What is also clear is that ICANN legal doesn't want to give them that right, or is trying to limit it severely.

The persistent fact is the numbers community is getting the service it needs and ICANN is committed to continuing to provide it.

MM: This misses the point. The fact that they are satisfied with the service now doesn't mean it will be forever, and especially after NTIA oversight ends. So it is perfectly reasonable for the numbers community to insist on the right to switch providers. The burden of proof should rest with those who say they should not.

With respect to the claims that ICANN is "fighting" or that "separability" is a principle that has to be taken above all else, I think these are false statements.  Neither body lives in the "what if" world.  Trying to work out a perfect solution to a set of contingencies that are hard to specify, have not occurred and have no common points of reference - and, yes, I am saying that's the nature of the debates on this list - is likely to be contentious and unbounded

MM: There is nothing contentious or unbounded about the simple ability to contact or withdraw from a contract. Either that right exists or it doesn't. It is a matter of who is in charge - do the customers have the right to switch or is the supplier a permanent monopoly, with all that that implies for (lack of) accountability?


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