[CPWG] Are Blockchain Domains within the Mission of ICANN - WAS RE: Questions to the board about distributed DNS

[Evan Leibovitch]

On Sun, Nov 20, 2022 at 5:10 AM Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond via CPWG <
cpwg at icann.org> wrote:


> this was 10+ years ago. We live in a very different ICANN today and the
> ALAC's standing is way better than it used to be in the wider scheme of
> things. Just look at the composition of the ICANN Board and notice that it
> is much less industry friendly than it used to be. Some members of our
> community are lead figures that actively balance interests.
>

Hi Olivier,

Sorry, but I will call shenanigans on that assertion.

Deeds speak.

That the ICANN Board not only needed to deliberate at length, but had to be
"nudged" by the California Attorney-General to make the right decision on
the ,ORG debacle tells even a casual outsider all they need to know about
the *ongoing* attitude of ICANN towards the public interest.

ICANN refused its own consultants' recommendations to have a second Board
member recommended by the At-Large Community because we didn't grovel
sufficiently. And don't even get me started on that pathetic joke on the
world known as ICANN's "empowered community". That At-Large validated that
laughable monster rather than fight it at every step is reason alone to
bestow "hood ornament" status. As a result, as those outside the ICANN
cult-bubble have plainly seen, without the California AG ICANN has no real
public accountability at all.

Apparently one must be periodically reminded that, no matter where they
came from, ICANN Board members are commanded upon arrival that their
fiduciary duty is to ICANN-the-institution and *not* stakeholders or the
public interest. Or to also be reminded that the GNSO compact of domain
buyers and sellers has the power to compel the Board to act on high-level
policy, whereas At-Large remains encouraged to engage in bikeshedding of
the highest order. Unless those two rather horrible unique corporate
artifacts have changed, please don't lecture on how ICANN may be gentler to
the public interest simply because we recognize some of the people on the
Board.

- Evan
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