[CPWG] ICANN’s Contractual Governance Regime

[Alan Greenberg]

I too support this.

The premise behind the ICANN Bylaw wording is that ICANN should never
create rules about content. but RVCs are not created by ICANN. They are a
REGISTRY commitment. A commitment that they are willing to have enshrined
in a contract. It is ludicrous that there could be terms in an ICANN
contract that are fully legal in the relevant jurisdiction but are not
enforced or enforceable. ICANN enforcing a registry commitment which
relates to content is NOT ICANN regulating content - the REGISTRY is doing
that (and fully within its rights). ICANN is simply ensuring that
contractual terms are met.

Alan

On Mon, Jul 24, 2023 at 5:54 PM Cheryl Langdon-Orr via CPWG <cpwg at icann.org>
wrote:

> I concur JZ
>
> On Tue, 25 July 2023, 01:55 Jonathan Zuck via CPWG, <cpwg at icann.org>
> wrote:
>
>> While I understand this argument, I've never completely bought it. Most
>> of the RVCs are meant to protect consumers and include such things as only
>> allowing second level domains to go to licensed professionals, etc. Anyone
>> concerned about their "freedom of speech" is welcome to use another domain.
>> There are 1,500 of them at this point. Things like "trusted notifier"
>> arrangements are NOT enforced by ICANN, by design.
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* CPWG <cpwg-bounces at icann.org> on behalf of David Mackey via CPWG
>> <cpwg at icann.org>
>> *Sent:* Monday, July 24, 2023 8:39 AM
>> *To:* CPWG <cpwg at icann.org>
>> *Subject:* [CPWG] ICANN’s Contractual Governance Regime
>>
>> fyi: Sharing this blog post by Milton Mueller
>> <https://www.internetgovernance.org/2023/06/15/the-big-question-facing-icanns-contractual-governance-regime/>
>> regarding a discussion held at ICANN 77, because it seems relevant to the
>> At-Large CPWG community ...
>>
>> *"ICANN never ceases to pose fascinating issues in global governance. At
>> ICANN 77, held in Washington DC June 12 – 16, a dramatic debate took place
>> about ICANN’s proper scope of authority. Some interest groups (mainly
>> Registries and GAC) want ICANN to be empowered to enforce compliance with
>> Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs), formerly known as Public Interest
>> Commitments (PICs). Civil society groups and some Internet businesses see
>> in the proposed change a threat to freedom of expression on the internet
>> and an attempt to undermine ICANN’s multistakeholder policy development
>> process.*
>>
>> *Underlying this debate are important questions about the relationship
>> between private contracting, multistakeholder governance, and public
>> policy."*
>>
>> *...*
>>
>> *"The RVC problem is really a derivative of a more fundamental flaw in
>> ICANN’s new TLD processes. Instead of defining clear, simple rules for
>> nondiscriminatory awards of new TLDs, ICANN has created a bureaucratic
>> morass of regulations and veto powers. The fate of a TLD application is not
>> governed by any predictable rules. It is all discretionary, and the GAC in
>> particular wants to be in a position to veto or modify applications and
>> names that it doesn’t like.*
>>
>> *Fortunately, Registry commitments that are designed to regulate content
>> and services and make ICANN their enforcer are clearly violations of
>> ICANN’s fundamental bylaws. The plot to bypass bottom up policy making
>> process cannot succeed unless those bylaws are modified, and the
>> modification would be so fundamental and the social gain so miniscule that
>> it is hard to imagine it ever happening.*
>>
>> *Never underestimate the ability of ICANN’s board, the GAC and DNS
>> industry short-term self-interest to screw things up, however. Keep an eye
>> on this process, and we hope this blog post helped you understand the
>> stakes."*
>> _______________________________________________
>> CPWG mailing list
>> CPWG at icann.org
>> https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cpwg
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your
>> personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance
>> with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and
>> the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You
>> can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or
>> configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or
>> disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
>
> _______________________________________________
> CPWG mailing list
> CPWG at icann.org
> https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cpwg
>
> _______________________________________________
> By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your
> personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance
> with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and
> the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can
> visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or
> configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or
> disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/cpwg/attachments/20230724/43405a37/attachment.html>