Policy Post 7.03 | ICANN Meets in Melbourne, Considers Public Voice and New Contracts

CDT POLICY POST Volume 7, Number 3, March 14, 2001

A BRIEFING ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES AFFECTING CIVIL LIBERTIES ONLINE
from
THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY

CONTENTS:
(1) SEARCH CONTINUES FOR MEANINGFUL PUBLIC ROLE IN DOMAIN NAME MANAGEMENT
(2) BOARD TO CONSIDER NEW REGISTRY CONTRACTS, POSSIBLE ".ORG" RESTRICTIONS
(3) DISCUSSIONS ON PRIVACY, NEW TOP LEVEL DOMAINS

(1) SEARCH CONTINUES FOR MEANINGFUL PUBLIC ROLE IN DOMAIN NAME MANAGEMENT

How can Internet users -- including individuals and small organizations -- have a say in the management of the Internet? Will the Internet's coming of age as a commercial medium give rise to gatekeepers unresponsive to the public interest?

The critical challenge of representing the public's voice in Internet management is posed most immediately today by ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organization that manages domain names and addressing. Even such technical decisions can have far-reaching policy implications for free speech and privacy on the Internet.

This broad issue of the public interest in Internet management has led to CDT's ongoing participation in ICANN, which concluded its quarterly meeting early this week in Melbourne, Australia. Major topics of discussion at this latest meeting included the debate over public participation in ICANN's board, new proposals for management of the .com/.org/.net domains, and a range of other issues.

As part of an ongoing effort to study user participation in Internet management, CDT and a group of international researchers hosted a workshop in Melbourne on "The Future of the At-Large Membership & Public Participation in ICANN."

The workshop was convened by the NGO and Academic ICANN Study (NAIS), an ad hoc collaboration of nine research and advocacy groups from around the world, including CDT. The workshop discussed a critical debate at ICANN: The "At-Large" membership and elections for ICANN Directors that many view as an essential form of public participation in ICANN. NAIS is undertaking a far-reaching study of public participation in ICANN, and will be making recommendations regarding the future of ICANN's "At-Large" elections.

More information about the NAIS project is available at: http://www.naisproject.org/

Parallel to the NAIS effort, ICANN has appointed its own Study Committee to review the participation of the Internet community "At Large" in ICANN's decisions. On March 13, the ICANN Board of Directors appointed six new members to its official effort.

While there has been criticism that the nine-member Study Committee includes too few advocates for public representation, members of the Committee have made clear that they intend to rely significantly on input from the Internet community in developing their recommendations. Several groups, including the NAIS team, have already announced their intention to provide such input to the Committee.

The terms of the Study Committee's work include a controversial "clean sheet" examination of public participation in ICANN -- thus re-opening the concept of including users in ICANN's decision-making. While such a broad scope gives the Study Committee flexibility to explore the rationale for public participation, it also requires advocates for public participation in ICANN to defend and define that interest vigorously.

In response to a letter from the NAIS group earlier this year, the At Large Study Committee has released a limited set of aggregate data about last October's At-Large election. While the data currently available is inadequate for a rigorous study of the election, CDT views it as a step in the right direction and hopes that the Study Committee will make further progress in the near future.

Information about the At-Large Study Committee, including biographies of its members and copies of the election data already made public, is available at: http://www.atlargestudy.org/

(2) BOARD TO CONSIDER NEW REGISTRY CONTRACTS, POSSIBLE ".ORG" RESTRICTIONS

Opening what could be a contentious debate, the ICANN Board discussed, but did not take final action, on a proposal to change ICANN's contracts with VeriSign, the company that manages the master list 'registry' of domain name registrations for the ".com," ".net," and ".org" top-level domains. Among other things, the proposal would require Verisign to divest the .net and .org registries sooner than otherwise expected but give the company a greater likelihood of retaining the .com registry in the future.

One feature of the new agreements would transfer control of the ".org" domain to a "sponsoring organization representing non-commercial organizations." ".org," like ".net" and ".com," is currently open to any individual, corporation or organization. Under the new proposal, ".org" could become a closed registry "operated by and for non-profit organizations." This raises difficult questions: What global definition of "non-profit" would be imposed on new .org registrants? What organization would decide and enforce such a policy? CDT fears that this proposal could ultimately do more harm than good to free expression on the Internet.

One of the Internet's most important features is the absence of gatekeepers with power to unjustly restrict online speech. Cheap, unfettered access to domain names empowers Internet users to establish online identities free from authoritarian interference. A decision by ICANN, however, to require domain name registrants to prove their standing as non-profit organizations could deny future registrants access to one of the Internet's longest-standing expressive spaces.

As a rule, CDT believes that unrestricted domain name spaces should play an important role in the future structure of the DNS. Since restricted spaces grant certain organizations authority to make binding decisions about who may or may not speak in a given online space, they are generally inconsistent with the basic values of openness that have promoted innovation and expression online. CDT hopes that ICANN will keep this tension in mind as it moves forward with negotiations for both present and future top-level domains.

The new contracts sparked intense debate in Melbourne, with comments noting both benefits -- such as the early recompetition of the .org and .net spaces -- as well as potential concerns about competition and the process and speed of the decision. While the Board postponed making a final decision, existing agreements require a decision by mid-April. In all likelihood, the ultimate decision will be made on a non-public ICANN Board teleconference in early April.

A description of the proposed changes is available at: http://www.icann.org/melbourne/proposed-verisign-agreements-topic.htm

(3) DISCUSSIONS ON PRIVACY, NEW TOP LEVEL DOMAINS

Another pressing issue facing ICANN is the status of the publicly-accessible databases (so-called "WHOIS" data) of domain name owners' personal or corporate information. ICANN's contracts with the companies that register domain names for Internet users obligate the companies to provide free public access to the technical, administrative, and billing contacts associated with any domain name in ".com," ".net," and ".org." Such data is frequently used for technical maintenance of the network, law enforcement, and other purposes, but the freedom of its availability raises privacy questions when individuals find their home addresses, e-mail addresses and phone numbers used inappropriately. ICANN has established a WHOIS Committee but the absence of a well-defined user advocate makes it likely that broader policy issues regarding WHOIS will need to be worked out in another forum. CDT remains confident that processes can be put in place that provide needed access while preserving individual privacy.

Information on the .com/.net/.org WHOIS Committee is available at: http://www.icann.org/committees/whois/

The ICANN Board also discussed the state of negotiations between ICANN and the companies chosen in November 2000 to operate new global top-level domains (gTLDs) on the Internet. Four of seven negotiations for the new gTLDs are nearing completion and could begin accepting registrations relatively soon. Of these four new names -- .pro, .name, .info, and .biz -- only ".info" will be completely unrestricted. Draft versions of the necessary contracts were presented to the Board, although significant appendices remain to be released. The Board voted to authorize the ICANN staff to finalize negotiations and present contracts that would be adopted absent any further objection from Directors.

Agendas from the Board meeting and public comment forum, with links to the notes of the real-time scribe and copies of relevant documents, are available at: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/melbourne/archive/index.html

CDT's ICANN page is http://www.cdt.org/dns/

Detailed information about online civil liberties issues may be found at http://www.cdt.org/.

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