[Ws2-jurisdiction] RES: ISSUE - unilateral jurisdiction of one country over ICANN
Nigel Roberts
nigel at channelisles.net
Sun Aug 20 06:21:11 UTC 2017
On 20/08/17 04:09, parminder wrote:
>> . And don't you think it would then make ICANN /less /accountable?
> Maybe less accountable to US public, but more accountable to the global
Well, our organisation is not a part of the US public, but the global.
Nonetheless we strongly think that immunity would make ICANN less
accountable to the global public interest. So we fundamentally disagree.
Any form of immunity would once again mean ICANN Board and/or staff
would return to the approach of the early 2000s when (to use a phrase in
common use among a number of my colleagues in the ccTLD world) "they do
whatever they like".
And I have personal knowledge of such things: one company I was involved
in the very early days of the Internet was directly and most seriously
affected (the company no longer exists, pretty much as a result) by
ICANN acting (we would have said) without any proper legal basis in US
law. They were, in fact, at the behest of a **non**US (or "foreign")
governmental entity.
At that time ICANN was partially "protected" by being, in effect a state
actor (i.e. ICANN merely "recommended" certain actions to another party,
who then acted under US Government contract). The affected party was a
start-up with limited resources to bring suit anyway, irrespective of
the Governmental connextion and the company consequently had to close down.
Personally I welcome the change to ICANN becoming a purely private body
(something I've been working for since 1999), and would oppose any
proposals or suggestion to immunise it.
But you fail to take this reasoned, and reasonable, view into account
when you repeat your clamour for ICANN to be given one or more "get-
out-of-gaol-free cards".
On 20/08/17 04:09, parminder wrote:
>> . And don't you think it would then make ICANN /less /accountable?
> Maybe less accountable to US public, but more accountable to the global
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