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ICANN Director Sues ICANN for Access to Records
According to an EFF press release (press release mirror) today, Karl Auerbach (the North American elected representative to ICANN's board) filed suit (petition mirror) today against ICANN itself to obtain financial and other records that he has been seeking to obtain since December 2000. As a bit of background, according to general summaries that ICANN has released, it now spends about $6 million per year (for a job that used to be done by volunteers); roughly half of all the money it spends goes to the law firm of Jones Day.
Anyway, any large evil corporation of which ICANN currently resembles far more than a democratically elected board almost always spends a good portion of its money for entrenchment with the fear of the light footed and legally just taking over. Look at rambus.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
When a company's own director is denied access to financial records of his own company!
Though not an admission of wrongdoing, it does raise some serious issues on how ICANN is run.
One question, was this director already aware of any wrongdoing, or just checking some facts out?
ICANN management dragged its feet for nine months, then issued a new "policy" -- never brought before the Board for discussion or vote -- requiring Auerbach to sign a non-disclosure agreement that placed Auerbach's ability to discuss the records at the discretion of ICANN management.
Appears as though ICANN wants to take something that was apparently public record and turn it into private, proprietary information. Not really a smart thing to do after the request has been made.
"Here, take a look at our records. Oh, wait, you might use some of this against us? Never mind, sign this binding agreement so we can take care of our CYA initiative."
Randal Graves says: I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class... Especially since I rule.
The internet is designed to route around problems, so why haven't we routed around ICANN yet?
ICANN was designed to give legitimacy to the way the net is run, and the only way that they could have done that was to spend money. As soon as money entered the picture politics followed. Get rid of both and start from scratch with a better designed and built system. One where democracy rules, where the law is applied equally to both big companies and the little guy.
Just a side point, what would it take to replace the 13+ root dns servers?
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
Something smells here, and it's not my feet!
Didn't Jon Postel do practically all of what ICANN does?
Do we really need a huge, opaque, multimillion dollar organization to do... what is they're supposed to do anyway, manage the DNS space? Sheesh.
ICANNOT access my records =(
thats gotta be close to $3 million, so lets just call it even.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
What positive things did ICANN did so far?
Let me mention the issue where NSI and some other players not release the expired domains back to the pool. What did ICANN do about it?
Check out these links
NSI abuse
Verisign's status
Does anyone else find this hysterical? I was going to attempt a thoughtful commentary, but there is just something about the highest office in the company not being able to access records. This maybe a very sad case of business today, but I still believe that the absurdity of what is happening, and the humor, cannot be denied. ROTFL
It's shocking that ICANN expects to be able to hide it's basic financials from members of it's own board of directors.
I was rather amused though by board member Wilson's comment to Auerbach that his request for records had been rejected because he has requested them in Electronic Form; after all. ICANN can't be expected to be particularly technologically savvy. It's not like they do business in a high tech field. In fact, It's a miracle they even have a board member mailing list, from the tone of the petittion.
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)
Good luck, Karl! It sounds like at least one person over at ICANN isn't a horrible waste of carbon.
One where democracy rules, where the law is applied equally to both big companies and the little guy.
...but if you move the root dns servers to another universe, we won't be able to access them from here, so it'll be moot.
and list who exactly all the players are? I thought that most of the ICANN board were to be hated, with the exception of the elected members. Is Karl Auerbach a good guy or the bad guy here? It wasn't clear since he is the Director suing his organization...or is Director in the sense of "Board of Directors" instead of the singular leader, such as a President or CEO?
(Or was it jamie slamming the overuse of slashdot by certain users? - Can't remember, and don't care to go searching FortKnox's comments right now to find out). Oh well, they were both part of what apparently, was the ill-fated censorware.org project, so I guess you could both say they played a role in the whole debacle.
I realize that they're supposed to be "in charge", but what are they in charge of doing? As far as I can tell, they have big meetings in strange, out-of-the-way places where reporters can't show up. Then they sit around, talk amoungst themselves, and choose who gets to have a top-level domain and who gets locked out.
Do they do anything else? I would love anywho who saved us from SPAM, but they can't seem to do that. I would love it if someone could lower the cost of registering domain names to close to the real cost, but they can't seem to do that. I would love it if they could promote more stable, secure protocols, but they aren't close to considering questions like that.
So can anyone else articulate something they have given us?
I typed the wrong URL in my comment. But the correct one is in my sig.
... because even though the financial records should be made avaliable since there's nothing to hide (right?), Karl could easily use the policy for political reasons.
If he sees that requesting the information would be rejected, he could do it on purpose, be refused, and then raise a huge stink about it in hopes of drawing attention to himself as a poor guy getting trounced by THE MAN. Kind of like saying "... so you won't tell me your secerets? What are you hiding? Hey everone, this guy is hiding something, he must be evil!"
I agree that the organization should cough up the information out of principle, but if Karl is requesting them becasue he can see that he would get personal (and political) gain out of it, we're choosing between two evils.
If Slashdot is where the spelling-challenged go when they die, I'm in heaven.
He *could* I suppose... but...
IT is *illegal* for them to not provide him with the requested records. He's a director of the company!
So political gain or not, he is right.
"Gentlemen, Start your Shredders!"
VRMMMMM VRMMM SHHHHHHHHHRREEWWW.
...I'll do all the work that ICANN does. And I promise to be fair and sensible.
:-)
Which is, all told, a helluva deal for everyone. I'll be a lot cheaper, and you can be damn sure that even at my worst, I can't be even 1/10th as bad as ICANN.
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
The only thing that scares me about this is that ICANN now has a budget this big. money==power
Just goes to show Orwell was right on with "Animal Farm"!
All Animals Are Equal
But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others
LOL!
Service guarantees Citizenship! Questions Guarantee GITMO.... Amerika Uber Alles!
Can anyone translate this paragraph?
After all, IANAL, and Babelfish doesn't translate 'legalese'...
Went to a single law firm. Has ICANN been involved in 3 million dollars worth of litigation? I can understand that they may have use of a lawyer's service in their position but 3 million dollars worth?
Lots more questions then beg to be answered. How many lawyers was the money paying for. What did they do? Is the same law firm the one suggesting ICANN not release the financial documents? Are any of ICANNS managers benefitting from diverting so much money to the law firm?
Oh man people are going to want to know answers to all these things, while ICANN skitters around looking for something to scurry under to escape the terrible light.
Sounds like... Enron. Higher ups, not knowing where things are going, lots of money, etc.
There is an interesting article over at Wired about ICANN's future directions following an ICANN meeting in Africa.
The main issue seems to be fear of increasing US influence. Looks like Esther Dyson has less money to roll naked in since she pledged $10k to studey of "at-large outreach".
How this square with
Quote "Lynn (The ICANN CEO) also published a 17,000-word proposal calling for elections to be abolished and to more closely involve national governments"
unquote
is beyond me.
Help fight continental drift.
Does any of my money goes to pay these fellows?
When I was reading the site today, I noticed a small, probably typographical error. I would appreciate it if you could correct this error by reposting the current article under the category: "It's Funny. Laugh."
Wouldn't Karl have a Fiduciary Duty to review these records? Of course, as a non-profit with no stockholders, fiduciary duty may mean something different to ICAN'T^H^H^H^H^H^HICANN...
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
ICANNWatch
(which is also covering this story)
Note the michael posting articles on that site is A. Michael Froomkin, not Slashdot's Michael Sims
KARL: Give me the financial records!
ICANN: ICANN't let you do that Karl...
Sorry, didn't see that anyone had done it so I had to... =)
If you remember from Carl also is the disenter of eliminating public involvement in ICANN.
What are they hiding?
Fight Spammers!
Anyone else notice that the EFF related information is mirrored, but the ICANN info and the law firm aren't? Hmmm... hostile slashdotting?
From where does ICANN's power depend?
To whom do we petition to have that power revoked?
--Blair
"The revolution will be webcast."
Wasn't there even a slashdot story about the preceding? How long do you have to be a uid on slashdot these days before they turn you lose on the moderation system?
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
I don't like the way it sounds but reading the press release, maybe they can make him sign an NDA.
From bylaws (in press release):
"The Corporation shall establish reasonable procedures to protect against the inappropriate disclosure of confidential information."
Surely an NDA would fall into this category, given they believe he is someone that is likely to publicly raise issues.
That said, the state law "absolute right" would seem to contradict that.
How is this "confidential information"? We're not talking about Joe Schmoe's email address here. And this is supposedly not for-profit company, so the company's finances shouldn't be a secret. Are PBS's or the United Way's or EFF's finances a confidential secret?
6 MILLION dollars?
Something smells...VERY BAD.
-hack
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
I had asked the question before on ICANNs own forum: It seems to me difficulties are due to piss poor management and nothing to do with need for structural reform. For instance, why stick with Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue? Is it because of certain old ICANN links with them? Are JDRP profiteering? They are very costly - have you looked for other Law firms?
Have you checked out JDRP.com - and their people involvement with ICANN?
A quote from a Karl Auerbach:
Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue is ICANN's law firm, and has been so since the day of ICANN's birth. Indeed Jones-Day actually performed the incorporation ceremony in its Los Angeles offices.
Jones, Day, in the person of its principle man-on-the-ICANN-scene, Joe Sims, was present for at least half a year before ICANN was born, working in the shadows, responding to unknown interests and possibly making unknown deals. About all we know about that period is that those who were not insiders to Joe Sims process were ignored and that those who objected were treated with condescension and abuse.
Over the life of ICANN, Jones, Day has been the the dominant creditor of ICANN.
Even now Jones, Day continues to receive a lion's share of every dollar that flows into ICANN.
And one of Jones, Day's partners, Louis Touton, left the firm to become ICANN's Vice-President, Secretary, and General Counsel.
There is in my mind a question about the appearance of propriety.
Karls platform.
***End quote.
In a good two month period, October and November 2000, they got $465,553.67 from ICANN.
ICANN minutes.
As it one of the largest intellectual property practice groups in a general-practice law firm - with more than 85 intellectual property lawyers, I would imagine Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue make a lot of money on trademarks problems on the Internet.
Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue.
Virtually every word is trademarked, be it Alpha to Omega or Aardvark to Zulu - even common words you learnt with your A B C's - apple, ball and cat - most many times over.
MOST share the same words or initials with MANY others in a different business and/or country. For example, the World Trade Organization (WTO) shares its initials with six trademarks - U.S. alone (please check). Conflict is IMPOSSIBLE to avoid.
The solution to this problem has been ratified by experts - so that ALL registered trademarks can be identified on the Internet.
Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue know this solution.
They would lose a lot of money, if there was less trademark problems on the Internet - wouldn't they?
Draw your own conclusions - but it is my opinion they do not want the solution to 'consumer confusion', 'trademark conflict' and 'passing off' problems on the Internet.
There is in my mind certainly no question about the appearance of corruption - it is beyond doubt.
Please visit WIPO.org.uk to see. No connection with the United Nations WIPO.org.
http://www.eff.org/perl/join
Everyone likes to talk about fighting for causes like freedom of speech, privacy, and individual's rights. But, the EFF takes on cases that fight for these things all the time! If you support Karl's fight against ICANN head on over and donated $10 or $20 now!
Put your money where your mouth is!
Want a route around ICANN? How about DNS? Try freenet! No domain registration required. Free anonymous encrypted worldwide data storage, what more could you ask for?
Also, I think ICANN is a California Non-profit. As such, it's records are also public record to some extext, are they not? IANAL.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
How do you guys come up with this stuff?
ICANNot stand anymore ICANN jokes.
- He didn't play politics much,
- He didn't declare himself to be autocrat of the world,
- He didn't refuse to listen to real users,
- He didn't act obnoxiously and irresponsibly.
Jon Postel wasn't perfect, and he did make some mistakes, but he was fundamentally reasonable and tried to do a good job. He didn't let the fact that he really was in charge of the world as we know it go to his head....Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
This has long been a theme among those at ICANN. It's not surprising that they do it and quite satisfying to see them hauled into court over the matter.
But this sort of problem isn't restricted to ICANN. It's all over. People are constantly entering themselves into pissing contests over matters of ego. Ironically, there is such an on-going "matter of ego" going which includes the posting editor of this very thread. I suspect that due to my mere mention of it that this response will be modded down, but it is my opinion and observation that there is a bit of irony here and what appears to be a "pot calling the kettle black."
I think the larger picture is that we wish the world were less "petty" in its behavior and in the grand scheme of things we all forget that we all, as individuals will die eventually. ICANN, as a body should have been designed from the ground up as a non-petty organization.
In any case, we wish for the world to be less petty, but our world starts with ourselves. How petty are we? Ask yourself if you're doing things out of spite, or out of some personal need to be in control? Do you ally yourself with like-minds in order to strengthen your own position?
I think we all start with good intentions and generally forget what we started out to do.
Really! What are they hiding?
My favorite bit:(I already have 50 karma, so don't be afraid to mod me up for Informative.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org