Slashdot Mirror
Karl Auerbach Wins Right To Inspect ICANN Records
Siobhan Hansas writes: "Karl Auerbach was in court today fighting for the right to inspect and copy documents he first asked to see in 2000, shortly after he became a member of the Board of Directors. Salon have the AP story. Auerbach won the right to inspect documents, but not to copy them, and was required to give ICANN 10 days notice of release of any information marked "confidential" to give them the opportunity to seek a court order stopping him." M : A first-hand report from the hearing makes good reading.
'bout time ICANN had their nose bloodied! And they had the nerve to say that they were considering appealing the decision!?! What gall.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
During Standard Time, his name is Karl Auerbach.
But during Daylight Savings Time, his name is Karl Adenauer!
(ducks)
sulli
RTFJ.
...Since ICANN is getting rid of his position in November. He's got to cause a stink with what he finds and cause it fast, or it's going to be too little, too late.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Salon have the AP story.
;)
Slashcode really need a grammer check
...in case of Slashot Effect overloading the servers:
ICANN member wins records access
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Anick Jesdanun
July 29, 2002 | NEW YORK (AP) --
A board member for the Internet's key oversight body won the right Monday to inspect records without first agreeing to nondisclosure and other restrictions sought by its management.
But Karl Auerbach, a frequent critic of his own organization, must give the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers at least 10 days notice before releasing any items marked "confidential," said Judge Dzintra Janavs of California Superior Court for Los Angeles County.
ICANN could then seek a court order to stop Auerbach from releasing the information.
Auerbach is among critics who contend that ICANN, which oversees Internet domain and addressing policies, is too secretive and caters more to commercial interests than the public good.
Ruling from the bench, Janavs also said ICANN must send Auerbach non-confidential electronic documents by Friday and allow him to inspect paper records at ICANN's Marina del Rey, Calif., office by next week.
The court did not grant Auerbach a right to copy documents, something he had sought.
Still, Auerbach said he was pleased with the ruling.
"Now I'm actually going to look at materials I should have been able to see 18 months ago," he said.
ICANN's bylaws gives directors "the right at any reasonable time to inspect and copy all books, records and documents of every kind." It also requires that ICANN establish reasonable procedures to protect confidentiality.
ICANN tried to require Auerbach to first sign a nondisclosure agreement.
Mary Hewitt, an ICANN spokeswoman, said the judge's order reflected much of what ICANN was prepared to permit if he had signed the agreement, noting that any disputes over disclosure would have ended in court anyhow.
Nevertheless, she said ICANN was considering an appeal.
The decisions of ICANN, which was selected in 1998 by the U.S. government, ultimately affect how users find Web sites and send e-mail.
Auerbach is one of five elected members on the 19- member ICANN board. His term expires in November, and ICANN already has said it will not hold another round of elections.
I mod down anyone who uses M$ in their posts. I like to live on the edge.
UK English considers companies and organizations plural - e.g. Salon have posted xyz, or Manchester United are a severely overrated soccer^H^H^H^H^H^Hfootball team.
remind me again why we have to have these kinds of legal battles with the orginization that is "running" the Internet? Doesn't it counter the "priciples" of the 'net? (openness, sharing of knowledge, etc..)
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
ICANN has -- as we all know -- hindered Mr. Aeurbach and others representing the public interest since elected. Now, they're finally forced to give him access to all documents -- though he should also be given an unequivicol right to copy them and make them publicly available.
It would be in character if ICANN went through before Friday and labelled all of their documents "confidential". These guys are crooks just like the people at Enron and Global Crossings.
ICANN obviously realized what a mistake they made in "allowing public elections", as critics were elected. They're revoking elections so they can retain their totalitarian control. Fucking nazi's.
Auerbach should have a permanent seat. No one on ICANN has done a better job than him. All the rest of them -- aside from that European elected fellow, allied with Auerbach -- are crooks.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
Auerbach is one of five elected members on the 19-member ICANN board. His term expires in November, and ICANN already has said it will not hold another round of elections.
Gee, isn't that convenient? Well, I suppose I don't blame them; if I had the choice and I were them I wouldn't, either.
Danish != nationality
Right. So if he decides to secretly leak the documents, he has to tell them a week and a half in advance?
Note to M1-ers: a curt but otherwise insightful message is not "Flamebait" or "Troll".
For those of you just tuning in, Auerbach was elected to the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) board in November 2000 by the public at large. According to a Salon primer, ICANN "had already earned a reputation for ineptitude and closed-door policies that favor corporate interests. ... Auerbach intended to guide ICANN toward reform." He requested access to the financial records, he says, "[T]o find out where the money goes. Why does it take $2.4 million (47 applicants paid $50,000 each) to evaluate seven top-level domains?" As a director, according to California law, he was entitled to "the absolute right at any reasonable time to inspect and copy all books, records and documents of every kind," but ICANN thought otherwise, and the suit whose outcome is the topic of this story followed.
I hate call waitin`~+~~~
NO CARRIER
Does anyone see a connection? Mr. Auerbach raises a stink, and ICANN decides, "Hey! Let's not re-elect this SOB!" Of course, this is me, just restating the obvious. But then, all is fair in love, war, and corporate politics.
This sig no verb.
if your comment is real. It just looks like a troll to me.
sulli
RTFJ.
He is standing up for us little guys.
Fight Spammers!
does this seem to anyone else as just a pitiful bid for extra time? auerbach has been working for two years to get ahold of these documents. what could an extra 10 days possibly do for ICANN? they're just trying to be difficult on principle...
Xfce: Lighter than some, heavier than others. Just right.
Cat got your tongue? (something important seems to be missing from your comment ... like the body or the subject!)
Sent from your iPad.
Desolve the damn organization already. If you're going to have a totalitarian body guarding the system, lets atleast be honest about it and not hide it behind "non-profit" bs.
As those who design DNS software know, the power over DNS resides not with ICANN, but collectively among all the people who configure the root server tables in the major sites and ISPs of the world, and in particular, in the sites that distribute the most common name servers (BIND and IIS) which come pre-configured with a root table that points at the official ICANN list.
If the net community got together and could express a unanimous will, that table could be changed. No court would be needed. Governments would be hard pressed to stop it.
But it requires near unanimity because a splintered net, where some people use some roots and the other half uses a different set, so names don't resolve the same, is bad for everybody.
Unanimity is impossible over a given policy but it seems near-unanimity might well be possible over replacing ICANN with another body that will represent the users in choosing a replacement for ICANN. We might universally agree to make the change according to some democratic user-based process even if we don't know how the final decision will go. We just all have to agree to do whatever 51% of the users approve.
How this works is documented on my web site at this essay along with my proposed possible replacement.
But the key isn't if I can get unanimous support for my particularl proposal -- I can't. The question is, can we find a way to a path away from ICANN without yet agreeing on what it is?
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Please comment.
Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
So are we just in for another round of legal battles?
as well as, "openness, sharing of knowledge, etc..." have ceased to be in the nue improved terrorist-free world. i believe that the puppet (affectionately known as W) has signed a bill effectively limiting such activity, as it might promote a loss of corporate income in the coming quarters.
If it looks loke a crook, quacks like a crook and smells like a crook, it is probably a crook.
Of course, if an appeal allows them to delay revealing anything interesting until Auerbach is out of office, they will have won.
Has anyone else noticed the odd surge in bids on papers shredders at E-Bay lately?
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
LOLOL!
It would be in character if ICANN went through before Friday and labelled all of their documents "confidential".
Why stamp what you can shred?
Hey AC, have the balls to actually post using even your pseudo account, and I'll go ahead and feed them to you for dinner.
Till you actually can prove you have balls and post non AC though...I won't be holding my breath.
Cheers!
Ah, the double curse of Godwin's Law and poor spelling. Ouch. Otherwise, I agree.
Hey AC, have the balls to actually post using even your pseudo account, and I'll go ahead and feed them to you for dinner.
Till you actually can prove you have balls and post non AC though...I won't be holding my breath.
Great argument! Wow, you've won me over to your side!
You obviously met him in person, because the proper spelling of his first name, Karl, is not exactly tattooed on his forehead.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
No. A spelling flame must have exactly one spelling error in it, not two. This is not a spelling flame and so has zero spelling errors in it.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
I've been pondering about maybe replacing the DNS system outright.
Something that is distributed, and based on a kind of certification that the users give. Something that would of course have to be attack-resistent (in the sense that a single entity or small group can't profoundly influence the certification of a name->ip mapping on it's own)
The major problem I see, aside from the obvious difficulties in implementing and deploying such a system, is in organising the namespace. Can a name be owned by more than one entity?
You could imagine a system where names would have a subjective meaning, depending on what you and your 'friends' have certified. Other people could get a different entity for the same name.
Needless to say this subjective view is more than just annoying if you think about email for instance. You don't know if a name will lead you to a specific entity. All you're sure of is that the people you trust have picked this one.
Enforcing the one name-one entity mapping could however lead to problems like we currently have:
- first come, first served is a good rule, but gives opportunities to cybersquatters. Conflicting trademarks need to be worked out. Big corp with a trademark practically always wins over an well-intentioned individual. Inevitably disputes follow, courts get involved, lawmakers get involved, everything gets messy and too expensive for individuals, so individuals drop out.
- we could have a global certification where the majority of votes wins. But that leaves little protection for unpopular entities (ie tyranny of the majority).
The EFF has the court ruling in HTML thanks to Cryptome. You can also read the press release.
-- Are you an EFF member yet?
I won't be holding my breath.
please, do us all a favor and hold it until you fucking die.
cheers!
Well, ICANN will win regardless, if you shift views of what they were trying to accomplish. They were running down the clock, and they've accomplished this. Soon the gadfly will be gone.
Interesting. Even though the judge seems sympathetic, there is really no law to punish corporations who misbehave. WHO gets punished? So classic. No one really does. It's a win-win for them. And the very wealthy movers behind ICANN will still make their millions, or is it billions, in the years to come.
- Having considered the applicable law and the undisputed facts presented herein, he court concludes that paragraphs 3, 5, and 6 of the Inspection Procedures conflict with section 6334 and Art. V, 21 of the Bylaws by unreasonably restricting directors' access to corporate records and depriving directors of inspection rights afforded them by law.
- Furthermore, Lynn's 10/5/01 letter violates both section 6334 and Bylaws Article V, Section 21 because it deprives Auerbach of the inspection rights he has under law and imposes such unreasonable requirements as having to sign a confidentiality agreement and having to pursue burdensome review in any effort to enforce his inspection rights.
- Additionally, the Inspection Procedures here apparently have not even been adopted by the ICANN Board of Directors, but were promulgated by an ad hoc group of functionaries consisting of the Audit Committee, Louis Touton, Diane Schroeder, and Lynn (Auerbach Dec. Ex. 17, 18, 21).
- Based on the undisputed facts, there is no triable issue as to any material fact and Petitioner Auerbach is entitled to judgment as a matter of law granting his Petition for Writ of Mandate.
I'd say - that is clear.I haven't seen such an atrocious pun in ages, and it's bilingual, and two words, and ... and ... too bad! You deserve some sort of award. But I can't think of anything appropriate... yet.
Infuriate left and right
...From ICANN to UCANT.
...Also, I didn't know Buggalo could fly.
None-the-less ... check out opennic
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
The internet was based off of the ideas of intellectuals and academics, and has turned into a world nearly exactly opposite of what it was initially intended to do. No I'm not against any porn sites or anything else that is "wrong" with the internet today, I'll leave that battle for the conservatives.
What we are seeing here is a group who likes the control they have and they will be damned if they are about to just give it up. And why should they, the only ones who are against them are the ones who have no real say in the matter, in terms of numbers. Have I purchased a few of the DNS entries that ICANN holds, of course, it's the only way that is widely accepted as a way to identify yourself on the internet.
So where do we go from here? Stop supporting ICANN and start supporting something worth supporting. I support OpenNIC, a free and democratic DNS root. And not some democracy that ICANN has created, a real democracy where everyone gets one vote and that's it. The most votes, wins. Simple majority rules type of governance. While they aren't widely advertised like some other Alternate TLD's I can say that they aren't interested in doing this for the money. They are interested in doing this to take away ICANN's power/influence on us all. If we stop financially supporting ICANN than there will really be no reason for them to exist, they will be a company without assests, which in the capitalistic society we Americans live in, sucks.
Basically I see it like this, if we can all band together and show that we as true computer intellectuals can become something great. A group that can out do the professionals. A group that is designed to have a fair DNS system. A group that is not ICANN. A group that is truly INTERNATIONAL. A group that knows that not everything has to be about money. Money is nice, but certainly some things are more important than money, and freedom happens to be one of them.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
But, it was on his name tag.
Fight Spammers!
No, I am not talking about opennic or new.net or similar. A splintered net is useless, which is why nobody uses these extra TLDs. I have yet to see any of these extra TLDs appear in a URL, ad, billboard or E-mail address, and for good reason.
There is a natural monopoly in the root. We all have to use the same root, or I can't tell you my e-mail address and expect you to be able to e-mail me with it. Or I have to tell you which root I use, which means a super-root that lists roots, in otherwords a shared root once again.
Attempts at alternate roots will fail both because of this, and because most of them so far have just tried to be a different ICANN. They still wanted to hand out TLD monopolies to people and create TLDs with inherent meaning.
A really workable system has to have all TLD operators (and thus the 2lDs under them) on an even footing. If they are not on an even footing you get artificial scarcity as people try to own meaningful words and phrases ahead of everybody else. Then you get conflict.
Nobody has done this.
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
From the www.opennic.unrated.net website
The OpenNIC is a user owned and controlled Network Information Center offering a democratic, non-national, alternative to the traditional Top-Level Domain registries.
Users of the OpenNIC DNS servers, in addition to resolving host names in the Legacy U.S. Government DNS, can resolve host names in the OpenNIC operated namespaces as well as in the namespaces with which we have peering agreements (at this time those are AlterNIC and The Pacific Root).
There ya go ... problem solved ...
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
I think the alternative root idea does have a chance if the is only one main competing alternative name server authority. That way, the net will not be unbearably splintered.
Fight Spammers!
But the flow isnt 2 way. What happens to the AOL user who can resolve your domain? This is why most splinter DNS NICs dont work.
Board of Directors
.ct campaign, a 7000+ adherents strong campaign seeking the recognition of a TLD aimed for the Catalan-speaking cultural community. He has been specially involved in all the DNS reform process that eventually has brought ICANN into existence. He was elected to the gTLD-MoU Policy Oversight Committee. He was a member of the DNSO Names Council representing the Registrars Constituency until his selection for the ICANN Board of Directors, and co-chaired DNSO Working Group A on uniform dispute resolution policy.
* Vinton G. Cerf, Chairman
* Alejandro Pisanty, Vice-Chairman
* Amadeu Abril i Abril
* Karl Auerbach
* Robert Blokzijl
* Ivan Moura Campos
* Lyman Chapin
* Jonathan Cohen
* Frank Fitzsimmons
* Masanobu Katoh
* Hans Kraaijenbrink
* Sang-Hyon Kyong
* M. Stuart Lynn
* Andy Mueller-Maguhn
* Jun Murai
* Nii Quaynor
* Helmut Schink
* Linda S. Wilson
VINTON G. CERF
Vinton G. Cerf is senior vice president of Internet Architecture and Technology for WorldCom. Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocol, the communications protocol that gave birth to the Internet and which is commonly used today. In December 1997, President Clinton presented the U.S. National Medal of Technology to Cerf and his partner, Robert E. Kahn, for founding and developing the Internet.
Prior to rejoining MCI in 1994, Cerf was vice president of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). As vice president of MCI Digital Information Services from 1982-1986, he led the engineering of MCI Mail, the first commercial email service to be connected to the Internet.
During his tenure from 1976-1982 with the U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Cerf played a key role leading the development of Internet and Internet-related data packet and security technologies.
Cerf served as founding president of the Internet Society from 1992-1995 and as the chairman of the Board from 1998-1999. He is a fellow of the IEEE, ACM, American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.
Cerf holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Stanford University and Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from UCLA. He also holds honorary Doctorates from the University of the Balearic Islands, ETH in Switzerland, Capitol College and Gettysburg College.
Alejandro Pisanty is currently Director of Computing Academic Services at UNAM, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, in Mexico City, Mexico. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of CUDI, Corporación Universitaria para el Desarrollo de Internet, the Mexican Internet 2 Consortium, as well as of ISOC Mexico. He has served UNAM as Coordinator of the Distance Education Project (1995-1997), Technical Secretary of the Computing Advisory Council (1991-1997) and Head of the Graduate School in Chemistry (1993-1995). He is a Professor in the School of Chemistry. From UNAM he also leads the National Network for Videoconference in Education.
Mr. Pisanty received a Bachelors degree in Chemistry, and M. Sc and Ph. D. Degrees in Physical Chemistry from UNAM. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung in Stuttgart, Germany (1984-1986).
He was selected for the ICANN Board by the Domain Name Supporting Organization.
AMADEU ABRIL I ABRIL
Amadeu Abril i Abril teaches European Union Law, Competition Law, and IT Law at ESADE Law School, Ramon Llull University (a private University based in Barcelona). He also is an attorney-at-law specialising in distribution contracts, competition law and IT law. He was admitted to the Barcelona Bar in 1985, where he currently serves as Secretary to its Competition Law & Policy Section. Between 1986 and 1988 he worked at the European Commission's Directorate General for Competition Policy.
His private practice has been significantly reduced since 1997, as he has been acting as a consultant on Internet and e-commerce affairs to a number of European companies, most notably as Legal & Policy Advisor to Nominalia Internet SL, a domain-name registrar. He has been and is also involved in a number of pro-bono Net-related initiatives, such as BCNet, a local community network; a pioneering project on electronic democracy (http://bcnet.upc.es/democ.htm); and the domini
Amadeu Abril i Abril obtained his law degree from the University of Barcelona in 1985, and continued his legal education in different post-graduate and research programs at the Centre Européen Universtaire of the University of Nancy II (France), the Institut d'Études Européenes of the Free University Brussels (Belgium) and the European University Institute at Florence (Italy).
Amadeu was selected for the ICANN Board by the Domain Name Supporting Organization.
ROBERT BLOKZIJL
Robert Blokzijl is a founding member of RIPE, the European open forum for IP networking. Since its foundation in 1989, he has been chairman of this organization, and was instrumental in the creation of RIPE NCC in 1992 as the first Regional Internet Registry in the world.
Prior to this, he has been active in building networks for the particle physics community in Europe.
Robert Blokzijl graduated from the University of Amsterdam (1970) and holds a doctorate in experimental physics from the same university (1977). He is currently employed by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics and High Energy Physics (NIKHEF).
Rob was selected for the ICANN Board by the Address Supporting Organization.
Ivan Moura Campos
Ivan Moura Campos is a founder and CEO of Akwan Information Technologies, and Chairman of the Internet Steering Committee of Brazil, in charge of the registry services for the ".br" ccTLD. Formerly, Professor of Computer Science at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, where he also acted as Department Chairman and Dean of Graduate Studies. More recently, Director of Special Programs at the National Research Council of Brazil (CNPq), Secretary for Informatics Policy of Brazil, and Secretary for Science and Technology of his home state of Minas Gerais.
In those capacities, he has led the creation and run three fairly succesful projects in Brazil, all of them still in full operation:
* National Research Network (RNP), the pioneer Internet backbone in Brazil, connecting virtually all universities, schools, public libraries and research centers. Since its creation in 1993, Internet hosts in Brazil jumped from almost none to around 450.000 as of January of 2000. He has also co-authored the rationale, later issued as federal regulations, whereby the Internet was fully deregulated in the country.
* SOFTEX-2000, the Software for Export Program, currently involving several hundred software start-ups in Brazil and representation offices in the United States, People's Republic of China and Germany.
* PROTEM, a university/industry partnership program for research in Information Technology, responsible for giving more focus and economic relevance to the research themes in Brazilian academia.
Ivan has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Lyman Chapin
Lyman Chapin is Chief Scientist at NextHop Technologies, an Internet routing software company. Before joining NextHop in 2001, he was Chief Scientist at BBN Technologies. Mr. Chapin is a Fellow of the IEEE, and has been an active contributor to global networking and the Internet for 30 years as an architect, implementor, and diplomat. He has served as chairman of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication (SIGCOMM), and the ANSI and ISO standards groups responsible for Network and Transport layer standards, and was a principal architect of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model and protocols. He was a founding trustee of the Internet Society, and in 1997 co-founded the Wiley Networking Council publication series at John Wiley & Sons. Mr. Chapin currently serves as the USA representative to the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Technical Committee on Communication Systems (TC6) and to the NATO Science Committee's networking panel.
Mr. Chapin is the co-author of Open Systems Networking--TCP/IP and OSI, which was published in 1993 by Addison-Wesley. His current professional interests include Internet routing and traffic engineering, naming and addressing, information security and personal privacy, and electronic payment systems. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Hopkinton, MA (USA).
Lyman was selected for the ICANN Board by the Address Supporting Organization for a three-year term starting in October 2001.
JONATHAN COHEN
Jonathan Cohen is the Senior, Managing Partner of the Shapiro Cohen Group of Intellectual Property Practices, located in Ottawa, Canada. He has practised in all areas of intellectual property (IP) law since 1971, and has lectured and written extensively both in Canada and internationally on various aspects of trade-mark law, including, more recently, domain name issues. Mr. Cohen is actively involved in numerous national and international IP organizations, such as FICPI, AIPPI, AIPLA, INTA, IPIC, IPBA, LES, MARQUES, APLA, CBA, and IBA, which collectively represent the interests of all categories of intellectual property stakeholders, including small and large businesses, and individuals. Mr. Cohen has taken an active role in Internet governance reform and the ICANN formation process from the start, beginning with his participation in the WIPO-IAHC meetings in Geneva in 1997, through the formation of the DNSO, and ultimately the Intellectual Property Constituency, where he served as the IPC's first President and Names Council representative until his election to this Board. Mr. Cohen has also co-chaired Working Groups A and B, and worked on the Registrars'; Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy.
Mr. Cohen holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Carleton University (1967) and Bachelor of Laws degree from Osgoode Hall Law School (1969).
He was selected for the ICANN Board by the Domain Name Supporting Organization.
FRANK FITZSIMMONS
Frank Fitzsimmons is the Chief Operating Officer for Iridian Technologies, the exclusive developer of biometric authentication and identification technology based on patents for iris recognition.
Prior to joining Iridian, Frank was Senior Vice President, Global Marketing for Dun & Bradstreet, where he is responsible for the implementation of new global marketing initiatives in the areas of access systems, software and consulting partner marketing, Internet applications, electronic markets, and value-added products. Mr. Fitzsimmons was Vice President, Applications Marketing (1994-96), where he was responsible for the development of new products and new markets for D&B-U.S. In this role, he managed "start-up" type teams to develop strategies, products and distribution capabilities. He was also Vice President, Finance for the Business Marketing Services Division and Vice President, Strategic Planning for D&B Information Services, North America.
Previously, he held positions in Finance and Planning for Amerada Hess and the international divisions of W.R. Grace & Co. Mr. Fitzsimmons hold a Bachelors degree in accounting from Ithaca College and a M.B.A. degree in finance from Columbia University.
He was appointed as one of ICANN's nine initial directors in October 1998.
MASANOBU KATOH
Masanobu Katoh has served as an ICANN director since 16 November 2000, having been chosen to represent the Asia-Pacific region in the At-Large voting process conducted in October 2000. Prior to his service on the Board of Directors, he was the Asia-Pacific representative of the business constituency on the Names Council of the Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO), which develops and recommends policies concerning the Internet's technical management of domain names.
He is General Manager of the Fujitsu Limited, Washington, D.C. Office. He is an active participant in numerous organizations currently addressing public policy issues affecting the information technology industry.
Mr. Katoh serves as the Chairman of the Electronic Commerce Committee of the Forum for the Global Information Infrastructure (GIIC). He is also Chairman of the Internet Law and Policy Forum (ILPF); the U.S. Japan Business Council, the World Information Technology Services Alliance (WITSA), the International Information Industry Congress (IIIC), and the Alliance for Global Business (AGB).
Mr. Katoh received his Bachelors of Law degree at the University of Tokyo and his Masters of Law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.
HANS KRAAIJENBRINK
Hans Kraaijenbrink is a member of the Executive Board of ETNO, the European Telecommunications Network Operators association, located in Brussels. He is also Manager, European Policy and Regulation with Royal KPN N.V., the Netherlands where he is responsible for European and international regulatory strategic affairs.
Previously, he worked for the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, responsible for information technology and the services sectors, and for the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management. He was also a member of the management team of the Telecommunications and Posts Directorate in the initial phase of the Dutch Telecommunications Regulator.
Mr. Kraaijenbrink graduated from Delft University (1966).
He was appointed as one of ICANN's nine initial directors in October 1998.
SANG-HYON KYONG
Sang-Hyon Kyong is Professor of Telecommunications Management and Policy, Graduate School of Management, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea. He also serves as Governor of International Council for Computer Communication (ICCC), Member of the Board of Multilingual Internet Names Consortium (MINC), and Chairman of the Board of Asia-Pacific Advanced Networking Korea (APAN-Kr) Consortium.
He was Minister of Information and Communication and Vice Minister of Communications in the government, President of National Computerization Agency, President of Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Executive Vice President of Korea Telecom, and Member of Research Staff at ETRI, all in Korea. In these roles, he participated in, and in many cases initiated, programs that led to today's telecommunications industry liberalization, information technology infrastructure, and the wide-spread use of the Internet in the country.
Prior to these activities in Korea, he was on the technical staff at Bell Laboratories and Argonne National Laboratory in the U.S.
He holds a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Rhode Island (1961) and a Ph.D. degree in nuclear engineering from MIT (1966).
He was selected for the ICANN Board by the Address Supporting Organization.
M. STUART LYNN
Stuart Lynn is President and CEO of ICANN, a position he has held since March 2001.
Prior to joining ICANN he had retired from the position of Associate Vice President for Information Resources and Communications at the University of California Office of the President. In this position he served as CIO of the University of California System responsible for IT policy, planning and coordination across the University. He was also the first President and Chair of the Board of CENIC, the consortium of California universities responsible for advanced services networking in support of the national Internet2 effort. He was part of the founding Internet2 consortium and served as an initial director.
Earlier Lynn's career spanned both the academic and private sector, mostly in the USA. He was Vice President for Information Technologies at Cornell University, following academic and administrative positions at Rice University and the University of California at Berkeley. Earlier in his career he was Director of IBM's then Houston Scientific Center.
He has served on numerous boards of directors, councils, and committees of professional societies and other not-for-profit organizations, and on advisory councils to the private sector.
Lynn's undergraduate work was at Oxford University, England; he subsequently obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics at UCLA, USA. He is a Fellow of the ACM.
ANDY MÜLLER-MAGUHN
Andy Mueller-Maguhn has been on the ICANN Board of Directors since November 2000. He was chosen to represent the European region in the At-Large voting process conducted in October 2000. He a citizen of Germany, 28 years old, and is a professional journalist.
For over 16 years he has been studying technological and social developments in the area of electronic networks. He has been a member of the Chaos Computer Club since the early eighties and serves on its board. Through this work, he gets in touch with and looks after projects that claim a critical and creative handling of technology. The main part of this work lies within the future-compatible structures and lifeforms and in the attempt to support those developments through transparency.
JUN MURAI
Jun Murai is currently Professor, Faculty of Environmental Information, Keio University (Japan); Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies, United Nations University; Instructor at Tokyo University of Art and Music; President of the Japan Network Information Center (JPNIC); General Chairperson of the WIDE Project (a Japanese Internet research consortium); Vice Chairperson of the Japanese chapter of the Internet Society; and Vice President of the Japanese Internet Association. He is a member of the board of the Internet Society.
Previously, he developed the Keio Science and Technology Network, and the Japan University UNIX Network (JUNET). His research has centered on electronic observation, satellite Internet, multimedia Internet, and mobile and ubiquitous computing.
Mr. Murai graduated from Keio University (1979), holds a Master's degree in computer science from Keio University (1981), and a Doctorate in computer science from Keio University (1987).
He was appointed as one of ICANN's nine initial directors in October 1998
NII NARKU QUAYNOR
Nii Quaynor is the At-Large Director of ICANN chosen from the African region in the October 2000 At-Large voting process. He has played an important role in the telecommunications industry in West Africa by introducing Value Added Networks in the region through the introduction of the SWIFT, Internet and Commerce networks whilst building human resources across the continent. He is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Network Computer Systems
He established the computer Science Department at the University of Cape-Coast in Ghana. He also is a member of the United Nations Secretary General Advisory Group on ICT, Chair and of the OAU Internet Task Force, Chairman of the AfriNIC, member of the Worldbank Infodev TAP, member of the ITU Telecom Board, President of the Internet Society of Ghana, and member of the Council of the University of Ghana.
He received a B.A. in engineering science from Dartmouth College in 1972 and received a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Thayer School of Engineering in 1973. He obtained M.S. and Ph.D degrees in Computer Science in 1974 and 1977 respectively from State University of New York at StonyBrook.
HELMUT SCHINK
Helmut Schink works for Siemens as Director for Advanced Standards. In this role he closely cooperates with product development and operators. This covers the areas of Internet and broadband technology.
His expertise includes strategic standardisation, strategic product planning, corporate consulting and business development as well as semiconductor physics and device development. He hold a doctors degree in physics. Previous occupations include semicoductor process technology and business development.
He is heavily engaged in the standards-setting arena as a chair of the global ETSI project TIPHON which develops specification for IP Telephony from an end-to-end point of view. He also serves as rapporteur for the Global Information Infrastructure Project in ITU. In the Internet Society (ISOC) he is the officer for standards of the Advisory Council articulating the requirements of the industry.
LINDA S. WILSON
Linda S. Wilson is president emerita of Radcliffe College and a Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She served as president of Radcliffe for a
decade. Previously, she was vice president for research at the University of Michigan, served in the senior administrations of the University of Illinois and Washington University, St. Louis, and was a research faculty member of the University of Maryland.
She is a Trustee of the Committee on Economic Development, a Director of Myriad Genetics, Inc. and Inacom, Inc., and Honorary Trustee of the Massachusetts General Hospital, a member of the Board of Visitors for the University of Wisconsin College of Letters and Science, and a member of the Dean's Advisory Council of Newcomb College. Previously, Ms. Wilson served as a Trustee of the Massachusetts General Hospital, a Director of Citizen's Financial Group, Inc. and Value Line, Inc., a member of the Board of Associates of the Whitehead Institute, a charter member of the National Academy of Sciences Government-University -Industry Research Roundtable, and as a member of the National Commission on Research. She chaired the National Research Council's Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel for six years. She served on the Council of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, on the IOM Committee on Government-Industry Research Collaboration in Biomedical Research and Education, and on the IOM Committee on the National Institutes of Health Research Priority-Setting Process. She also served on the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology and Government Task Force on Science, Technology and the States. She was a member of the Director's Advisory Council of the National Science Foundation for nine years and served on numerous advisory committees established by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as on committees of the American Council on Education, the National Association of College and University Business Officers, the Council of Graduate Schools, the Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Chemical Society. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the American Chemical Society.
Ms. Wilson received a Bachelor's degree from Sophie Newcomb College, Tulane University, and a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin. She received an Honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Newcomb College, Tulane University, an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Maryland, the distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Wisconsin, a Centennial Award from Newcomb College, the Radcliffe Medal from Radcliffe College, and other honors.
She was appointed as one of ICANN's nine initial directors in October 1998.
Karl Auerbach
Henry C. Yuen Fellow of Law and Technology at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) and Loyola Law School.
Advanced Internet Architectures group in Cisco's Office of the Chief Technical Officer (CTO)
I consider myself intimately versed in the Internet and its technology - I've been involved with the development of Internet technology for nearly three decades and have been active in the IETF for nearly a decade and a half. I've been involved with a fair number of standards and have done of implementations of everything from DNS to RTP/RTCP, from TRACEROUTE to MTRACE, and from RSVP to SNMP. (And many more - I won't even mention the NetBIOS over TCP diversion.)
I consider myself intimately versed in the Internet and its technology - I've been involved with the development of Internet technology for nearly three decades and have been active in the IETF for nearly a decade and a half. I've been involved with a fair number of standards and have done of implementations of everything from DNS to RTP/RTCP, from TRACEROUTE to MTRACE, and from RSVP to SNMP. (And many more - I won't even mention the NetBIOS over TCP diversion.)
Around 1986 I founded Epilogue Technology Corporation. John Romkey and Dave Bridgham came out to California to work with me. (Wow, was I flattered!!) John wrote a router one weekend. Since I consider myself a pretty good hacker, I tried to write SNMP in a weekend. It took me three weeks, but overall it is was a rather nice piece of code. That SNMP engine is, I believe, the most widely deployed SNMP in the universe.
In 1991 I formed Empirical Tools and Technologies Corporation, where I had a chance to code up some ideas I'd been thinking about for a few years. The result is a product called "Dr. Watson, the Network Detective's Assistant". (199K bytes) In my humble, and clearly unbiased opinion, it is the single most useful tool for the installation and troubleshooting of TCP/IP networks.
- Ripped from webpages for you reading.
"...Auerbach should have a permanent seat."
Ummm, *that* sounds like more of a Nazi attitude than requiring the gentleman to sign a confidentiality agreement.
this is an old victor borge joke.
(same routine as the pseudo-germanic "i wonder who's kissing[h]er now".
or was it the numerological riff "any two five eleven-is?",
within same equivalence class as
"any zero three nine-is?"...)
Sounds to me like: Democracy is no fun, if someone does not fully agree and follow the flock.
So lets get back to dictatorship.
If is interesting to note, that the US home os the ICANN, tries to get rid of all of the dictators of this world.
Now, if the TLDs got more uppity and took a page from the US's book on paying its UN dues, well, maybe this wouldn't be an issue.
"Your honor we need to drag this trial out just two days more while we get the rest shredded."
Not only does OpenNIC not solve the problem, it appears to be little better than ICANN, handing out ownership of ordinary words like "geek" to those who are simply the first to claim them.
Even the trademark lawyers, usually the bad guy in this, worked out centuries ago that you don't give ownership in real words to anybody. The generic terms can't be owned, only brands.
Nobody should own "com" or "museum" or "aero" or "org", or 2LDs within them. But we do have that, so we fight over it.
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
1. Where is George Bush?
The US government is rather influential in this. I wouldn't be surprised if they had something at stake here too. Otherwise they would have interfered long before.
2. Harass the board with questions please!
Vincent Cerf and some other board members give a lot of public lectures (and probably make a lot of money from it). If they speak near you: go to the lecture and ask the tough questions!
The USENET newsgroup hierarchy seems to have worked quite well. The newsgroup names are very similar to domain names. Why not copy that model? For instance you get enough votes to create a 'developer.php', and then anyone can sell subdomains of that.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
Is the same method that Claus von Stauffenberg tried back in 1944 to get rid of a paranoid delusional dictatorship. He just needs to use a bigger briefcase.
Am I joking? I'm not entirely sure. I believe that ICANN has slipped from beyond commonplace self serving greed and incompetence into blatantly self preserving malice bording on genuine evil. The evil they inflict on any individual is small, but summed up, they are having a dreadful long term effect on what could be a wonderful medium for We, the People.
Am I really advocating killing the board of ICANN? Mmm. Probably not. But I doubt if I'd shed a tear if an asteroid hit their next board meeting.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Hey AC, have the balls to actually post using even your pseudo account, and I'll go ahead and feed them to you for dinner.
Till you actually can prove you have balls and post non AC though...I won't be holding my breath.
Translation : I have no fucking argument, but i still wanna look like i know everything!
Some people post AC or haven't got an account for a reason, doesn't make their point of view any more or less valid. Whats the difference between an AC or someone posting under GSloop? SHIT ALL.
Think nothing is impossible? Try slamming a revolving door.
The authorities know the solution to trademark conflicts.
.reg) - as in apple.reg. This is because all word domains are 'confusingly similar' to trademarks. That is one of the excuses they use to steal domain in UDRP.
.reg could serve the same purpose as the registered trademark symbol ® - to advise the public that it is legally registered and protected by law.
You can legally use any word, words or initials to start a new business without registering a trademark - providing you are not passing off, of course. Take for example the word 'apple'. It is legally used by thousands of businesses - large and small all over the world. Indeed, it is impossible that they all register themselves as trademarks - they are bound to conflict with many others, being confusingly similar. Just in my local phone book alone, there are at least five using this word - two garages (seems not connected), a car centre, fruit growers and a decorating firm.
Fact: Virtually every word is trademarked. In this vast ocean of domains on the Internet, mostly non-trademarks, a marker is absolutely essential - for people to identify it as trademark (e.g. protected TLD of
This
Yes, it is true - check USPTO link at end of paragraph - Virtually every word is trademarked. 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 five trademarks - in the U.S. alone (please check).
Whatever word you have for your business or personal web site, you will have some big bully try take your domain away from you. This is all a fraud by big business - the authorities are corrupt in helping them overreach Trademark Law.
It is ILLEGAL for one trademark to prevent others from using their trademark - even if using identical word. To allow this without consumer confusion or trademark conflict, it is absolutely essential that the class or subclass is included. Please visit WIPO.org.uk - Not associated with United Nations WIPO.org
I thought this was very interesting: (from http://icann.blog.us/stories/2002/07/29/auerbachWi nsCourtCriticize.html cited above:)
"ICANN responded that it didn't see Microsoft or IBM putting their general ledgers and charts of account on the web, but the Judge quickly intervened with this: Court: 'As a non-profit, public benefit corporation, you have a duty to the public -- the international public in this case -- that is very different than Microsoft or IBM. This is a public benefit corporation.'"
That's just the problem. ICANN keeps forgetting that it's public, and keeps falling back into the private, corporate mindset.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
"To ruin the net to save Disney is the equivalent of burning down the library of Alexandria to save monastic scribes"
Actually it's the equivalent of putting taxes on printing presses to SUBSIDIZE monastic scribes.
Or on establishing a "trade group" made up of representatives from the buggy industry to regulate automobile highways...
The old media companies established ICANN and other horrors strictly for the purposes of making the Internet safe for their profit.
Frankly, I feel it's more than slightly treasonous for ANY American administration/Congress to turn over US sovergnity to any kind of international body, which ICANN is.
Why? Because groups/treaties like ICANN, WIPO, NAFTA, WTO, almost ALWAYS end up being exploited by the powerful corporate intrest, both domestic AND foreign, to subvert the rights and interest of the common American Citizen.
The excuse for passing the DMCA, BTW, was that it was REQUIRED by WIPO...
Corporatism != Free Market
Consider: we're looking to replace one heirarchy with yet ANOTHER centralised heirarchy. Get rid of the "natural" monopoly and route around the problem once and for all. In the bargain, we remove the problem of `where do we go next if we don't all agree?`
Another point I meant to make (hit submit too fast), is that the reason WHY corps and their allies in government favor turning over US sovergnity to such international alphabet soups is this:
l ) against these international corporate cartels who are subverting the law, but the cartels themselves!
To subvert the law (US Constitution).
Their loophole is to claim that obeying WIPO, WTO, ICANN, etc, is required because we are signatory to a TREATY. Which is how they justify overriding the Constitution.
The fact is, the Constitution puts rather severe restrictions on the government, AND corps, and there IS a limit to how far they can subvert it.
Setting up international orgs that operate in shadow (under US law, a director of ANY corp would have full access to records that Arebauch is having to SUE to get from ICANN), they can get greater lattitude that they could not get under US law.
For instance, want to have perpetual copyright? Get WTO to mandate it, and the President and Congress can say "we signed the treaty, we are obligated", thus striking away a DIRECT provision of the Constitution without going through the legal amendment process.
I submit to you all that it's not those who wish to fight back (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/26433.htm
Corporatism != Free Market
I see that everybody are upseted about the fact that he have to tell them 10 days in advance before he release any confidential documents.
But do he only have to tell them, or do he have to tell them AND give them back the documents?
Cause if he just have to tell them, it's kind of ok I think, it will give time to the bad guys to go hide themself far far away...
I'd rather be sailing...
Ah. She gets it.
It's fascinating, and yet depressing, how people with nothing to hide will go to great length to keep things from public eyes and ears.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
TO ICANN LAWYERS - JONES, DAY, REAVIS & POGUE
Why do ICANN stick with Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue? Is it because of certain old ICANN links with them? Are JDRP profiteering? They are very costly - have ICANN 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.
When the AOL user can't resolve your domain, you point them to www.opennic.unrated.net ... the same way that the new.net domains work. You can't just tell ICANN what to do, but you can inform the people who rely on ICANN about their other options.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
Can anyone dream up some plausible hypothetical bullshit theoretical possible type of information ICANN could have, that would really be legitimately confidential?
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
There would be a TLD named "apple", and Jobs' company would want to register "computer.apple" and people might visit "store.computer.apple" to buy an iMac. The Beatles would register "music.apple". Monopoly control over the "apple" TLD itself, wouldn't be particularly valuable, since the monopolist would exert power over so few entities.
Suppose I'm a farmer ("Sloppy's Orchard, Inc") and I sell real apples (the fruit). I can't register "fruit.apple" because "fruit" does have inherent and generic meaning within the context of apples (unlike music and computer), so I have to register something like "sloppy.apple"? Or perhaps some nonprofit concern (?) takes "fruit.apple" and I register "sloppy.fruit.apple" with them?
Do I have this right? Did I get confused at the end? ;-)
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I guess the editors don't like me..
"Our director of Daylight Savings Time is Konrad Adenauer; and our director of Standard Time is Red Auerbach."
If you ACTUALLY want to debate some points, it basically mandatory to be able to return to your comments.
Most, including myself don't have the time or energy to find their AC comments and follow up.
Thus, responding to AC comments is generally like talking to a brick wall, except in most cases the AC is MORE stupid and lifeless.
If AC has a comment that ALONE, has insightful info, then great - but it hardly ever will generate meaningful discussion - which is why I'm generally here. It's not often that enlightenment is reached in a single comment by an AC.
Lastly, it's generally accepted that AC's don't have to stand and be judged by their comments. Thus, they're off the cuff and often less than useful.
Notice, I'm replying to you because you want to have a dialog - there's (right now) 2 other AC posts that are total drivel. Perhaps you view my parent as such, but at least I have the balls to take the loss and drubbing by posting as me.
I've generally given up posting as AC. The only justification I can see for such, is a posting that needs to see the light of day, but for security reasons (i.e. Herr Ashcroft, whacko boss, job security etc) can't be posted as a logged in user. Other than that, about 99.5% of all AC posts are trash. (Statistics never lie! [grin])
Anyhow go read the post I was replying to - they claim to want to debate, but are too weak to actually do so. I was just pointing out their stupidity.
Cheers!
Translation : I have no fucking argument, but i still wanna look like i know everything!
Now, to comment on this...
If you believe that Republicans OR Democrats have the average guys' best interest in heart, you've been smoking something illegal.
BOTH sides of the isle are (generally) most concerned with getting re-elected.
To get elected, requires money. Unless you're in possession of almost unlimited wealth, and don't mind spending it, you're going to need some "donors." (Otherwise known as people who bribe you...)
To keep those donors happy, you're going to have to deliver on something - that something usually provides a decent return on their investment - literally. If you don't produce a good return, your corporate interests are going to find a better investment vehicle (otherwise known as an opponent!)
I have lots of argument. I'm just not going to dress the pig up in pearls to hope he'll look better. If you want to argue/debate, post as a "real" user. Put in some FACTS, and back them up. Then we can actually debate.
Cheers!
It would be in character if ICANN went through before Friday and labelled all of their documents "confidential". These guys are crooks just like the people at Enron and Global Crossings.
What strikes me as odd is why an organization like this should have *any* documents labelled as confidential.
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
You got it backwards. If there were an .apple TLD the growers of the fruit would not be able to register in it because that would be a generic use. In the real world, NOBODY gets to own the term "grannysmith apple" and it was a crazy mistake to let people own terms like this in DNS.
In theory companies that use apple as a trademark (and thus by law have nothing to do with apples) could possibly register in such a domain, if they were not operating it, but it might be better to design things to avoid this too.
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
I think you misunderstood that sentence. Everything that Karl wants to review must be turned over to him, confidential or not, before August 9th. He can publish anything non-confidential any time he wants, and if he wants to publish something that is "confidential" then he gives them 10 days notice that he is going to do it, and they have to convince a judge that there is good reason to keep it confidential if they want to stop him. Since California law says all those records are public, ICANN would have a darn tough time ever convincing a judge to seal anything from publication, but they are free to try.
As others have said, this is a pretty complete victory for Karl. Of course this is only the beginning of any real action Karl might be able to take, but it is a very good beginning.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
Ideally, under your system, what might Apple Computer's domain name be?
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
There would be a large number of branded TLD naming providers, all on an even playing field, all competing and innovating as they wish. They would have names that would be satisfactory international brands in the "directory" or "naming" business.
.yahoo, .dunn, .wipo, .sloppy, .yellowpages, .fredsdirectory.
.XXXX as a resale TLD.
.wipo under trademark rules. They might insist that nobody gets apple, but Apple Computer can get apple.computer.wipo and Apple Records can get apple.records.wipo. Or they can set any rules they want. Don't like their rules, go to a competitor.
Examples I give would be
If you could legally get a trademark around the world for "XXXX Directory Company" (or if you already have one) you could have
That would include of course any made-up word nobody is using yet, or any real world term that qualifies as a trademark law. The principles of that are well established and ruled in law and courts and used by businesses every day.
Thus there would be tons of competing companies, and you would choose the best one. The one with the best price, best policies, best technology, whatever your definition of best is. Whatever the market likes.
Thus Apple might decide to use apple.yahoo. If Apple records like's Dunn and Bradstreet they could be apple.dunn. If apple is taken within too many branded domains, more will spring up to meet the market need.
WIPO might run
What matters is all the competitors are on a level playing field. If somebody owns ".computer" then if you don't like their rules you can't go to another TLD for a computer name that's just as good. Their TLD is inherently valuable, because it has an intrinsic meaning. They didn't create the value, the just staked a claim on it, presumably by being their first.
Brands, on the other hand, by definition have no intrinsic value. The acquire value, lots of it. That's what branding is about. Yahoo has a valuable brand in internet directories now, for example.
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
FlashFXP's author, DeWeese, is a DIRTY thief.
Is there any good reason why ISPs dont add openNic to their DNS servers? Do they have anything to lose by doing so, or anything to gain by not doing so?
You've got a chairman of ICANN, a Worldcom employee, telling one of the very few elected directors he can't see the books?
C'mon, you're making this shit up.
Need Mercedes parts ?
Well, the whole time I've known him, it's been spelled Karl. Maybe he doesn't care about how it's spelled and so didn't bother getting it fixed on his nametag. Or maybe he was just trying to confuse people who didn't know him all that well, as a hack. Anyway, it's definitely Karl Auerbach.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
lemme get this straight
you tell your aspiring customer to go to buyfromme.com
because you are using opennic and not supporting icann, your domain name doesnt resolve to anything
so you point them to www.opennic.unrated.net... except that you can't, because they couldn't resolve your site in the first place...
guess they're going to www.I-stick-with-the-money-hungry-monopoly.com
Bullshit. There are no records they possess that should be held confidential and I'm not talking root passwords and such. They've made ludicrous dispute decisions that clearly favor corporations. Remember canadian.net? The only possible reason ICANN would refuse to allow him access to these records AND disseminate them is to conceal wrongdoing. They should be public records anyway.
That said, the parent post was an insightful and outstanding rebuttal against ICANN naysayers like myself. But it's still bullshit.
Hmm... Ok, I'm sold. Adios, OpenNic.
Now just tell me what addresses to type into my /etc/dnscache/root/servers/@ and The World will be one user closer to switching. ;-)
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.