Interview with ICANN's Karl Auerbach

katie writes "Great interview! ICANN, the Infofascist organization which rules the Internet with more effective power than any government, was told yesterday to 'fess up and show its knickers to reform-minded Board member Karl Auerbach. DesktopLinux.com Contributing Editor Malcolm Dean interviewed Auerbach at the Los Angeles Superior Court ..."

Comments

DMCA Virus (Envcrypted Virus)

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody would be allowed to decrypt an encrypted virus. If a Anti Virus Company writes software to protect against it or says how to protect against such a virus, it would violate DMCA. This would be the virus's ultimate protection against drugs.

Red flags should be going up here.

[Teknogeek]

As I told U.S. Senators recently, ICANN can pass a law that supersedes any law they can pass.

This is bad. VERY bad.

And probably a wet dream for Hillary Rosen, but that's beside the point.

My take ...

[SuperDuG]

Basically I see it like this, Karl Auerbach is a pain in the ass. And a good pain in the ass. He knows his way around the governing procedures that ICANN holds sacred and pisses on the "unwritten" rules of procedure whenever he feels like it. ICANN has a thorn that they placed in their own side, by opening elections they basically shot themselves in the foot. Now they're trying to hold on to what they once had before democracy came over and sideswiped them completely into submission. There seems to be some sort of thought that voting holds no power, if you think that, then you are just as much to blame as the rest.

While he may be leaving in November, do you really think that he will just go into submissive hiding? Hell no he won't, he'll go on to be one of the biggest advocates against ICANN, you can count on it.

Is this some type of new trend? Hell no it's not, basically it's a revolution, every now and then there needs to be someone to stir the pot up. It WILL happen in congress, it is ALWAYS happening in the supreme court, and well it's a little harder in the presidency, but has happened.

As usual, with anything ICANN related, it's time to plug OpenNIC again. Tired of ICANN, don't support them ... duh :-)

John Gilmore's Salon Interview

[wfrp01]

John presents his take on things in an recent Salon interview.

And what's SAIC up to these days (read John's interview)? Homeland security. They're on our side (cough).

Conspiracy theory or desperate truth?

[Alric]

When I read interviews like this one, I don't how to react. I try to get more information, but it is so difficult to obtain unbiased facts.

I feel like I have been programmed by society to view comments like Auerbach's as "crazy conspiracy theory talk." And when I try to find information to support Auerbach, I do find some relevant and informative material, but most of it reminds me of Bush's "we must get the evil ones" speeches due to its uninformed and clearly biased nature.

I guess I'm trying to ask, "How worried should I be?" And can anybody point me to a source of informationt that cites references and tries to use facts only with no opinions?

Re:Just a bit biased

[karmawarrior]

But he's 100% correct. They don't like him. Esther Dyson admits to it here:

I probably should be very careful not to get messed up in a lawsuit. It's very unfortunate, and I would say both sides are to blame that Karl Auerbach cannot get along with them. The board despises him, and they won't listen to his good ideas, and he has some. And so he's not productive. Look at me. The American at-large community despises me but I think I'm doing more good for At Large by working with ICANN than I would if I were out there simply criticizing them, not trying to improve them.

(my emphasis)

I recommend the interview to anyone who thinks that ICANN has a shred of legitimacy; Dyson - presumably without realising it - pretty much confirms that it's little more than a cliquish power-hungry quango with little or no redeeming features.