[CCWG-ACCT] Ominous update on the IANA transition

[David Post]

This really is starting to look, as Milton said, 
ominous - coupled with the pressure being placed 
upon ICANN to regulate message content, see
http://www.internetcommerce.org/senate-judiciary-to-ip-czar/

my take on this is here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/05/04/internet-governance-what-if-the-sky-really-is-falling/

If the final proposal does not have real 
safeguards against ICANN's content-regulation 
powers, we're all in trouble. And I am starting 
to wonder whether the USG is interested in making 
sure those safeguards are in place, or, as 
suggested in the above, making sure that they're NOT in place. . . .

David


>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>From: Milton L Mueller <<mailto:mueller at syr.edu>mueller at syr.edu>
>Date: Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 2:27 PM
>Subject: Ominous update on the IANA transition
>To: <mailto:NCSG-DISCUSS at listserv.syr.edu>NCSG-DISCUSS at listserv.syr.edu
>
>
>Dear NCSG:
>It’s now official: ICANN doesn’t even want 
>to let the IETF have a choice of its IANA functions operator.
>
>Those of you who read my 
><http://www.internetgovernance.org/2015/04/28/icann-wants-an-iana-functions-monopoly-and-its-willing-to-wreck-the-transition-process-to-get-it/>blog 
>post on ICANN’s interactions with the numbers 
>community will already know that ICANN is 
>refusing to accept the consensus of the numbers 
>community by recognizing its contractual right 
>to terminate its IANA functions operator 
>agreement with ICANN. In that blog, I referred 
>to second-hand reports that IETF was 
>encountering similar problems with ICANN. Those 
>reports are now public; the chairs of the IETF, 
>IAB and IETF Administrative Oversight Committee 
>have 
><http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ianaplan/current/msg01680.html>sent 
>a letter to their community noting that ICANN is 
>refusing to renew their supplemental service 
>level agreement because it includes new 
>provisions designed to facilitate change in IANA 
>functions operators should IETF become dissatisfied with ICANN.
>
>These are truly shocking moves, because in 
>effect ICANN’s legal staff is telling both the 
>numbers and the protocols communities that they 
>will not accept the proposals for the IANA 
>transition that they have developed as part of 
>the IANA Stewardship Coordination Group (ICG) 
>process. In both cases, the proposals were 
>consensus proposals within the affected 
>communities, and were approved by the ICG as 
>complete and conformant to the NTIA criteria. 
>Thus, ICANN is in effect usurping the entire 
>process, setting itself (rather than ICG and 
>NTIA) as the arbiter of what is an acceptable transition proposal.
>
>The key point of conflict here seems to be the 
>issue of whether ICANN will have a permanent 
>monopoly on the provision of IANA functions, or 
>whether each of the affected communities – 
>names, nummbers and protocols – will have the 
>right to choose the operator of their global 
>registries. Separability is explicitly 
>recognized by the Cross community working group 
>on Names as a principle to guide the transition, 
>and was also listed as a requirement by the 
>CRISP team. And the IETF has had an agreement 
>with ICANN giving them separability since 2000 
>(<https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2860>RFC 
>2860).  Yet despite the wishes of the community, 
>ICANN seems to insist on a monopoly and seems to 
>be exploiting the transition process to get one.
>
>Of course, a severable contract for the IANA 
>functions is the most effective and important 
>form of accountability. If the users of IANA are 
>locked in to a single provider, it is more 
>difficult to keep the IANA responsive, efficient 
>and accountable. Given the implications of these 
>actions for the accountability CCWG, I hope 
>someone on that list will forward this message 
>to their list, if someone has not noted this event already.
>
>Milton L Mueller
>Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor
>Syracuse University School of Information Studies
><http://faculty.ischool.syr.edu/mueller/>http://faculty.ischool.syr.edu/mueller/
>Internet Governance Project
><http://internetgovernance.org/>http://internetgovernance.org
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Accountability-Cross-Community mailing list
>Accountability-Cross-Community at icann.org
>https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/accountability-cross-community

*******************************
David G Post - Senior Fellow, Open Technology Institute/New America Foundation
blog (Volokh Conspiracy) http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/david-post
book (Jefferson's Moose)  http://tinyurl.com/c327w2n
music 
http://tinyurl.com/davidpostmusic  publications 
etc.  http://www.davidpost.com
*******************************  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/accountability-cross-community/attachments/20150504/20b32cfa/attachment.html>