ICANN Elects Peter Dengate-Thrush as New Chairman

An anonymous reader writes "Peter Dengate-Thrush, a New Zealand lawyer, has been elected unanimously as the new Chairman of the Board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. "I am delighted that my colleagues have placed their confidence in me for this challenging and important role," Dengate Thrush said. Peter practices civil litigation, specializing in intellectual property, competition, and Internet law. He has been involved in ICANN since its inception. As a member of the Boston Working Group, he provided comment in 1998 on the early drafts of the ICANN bylaws, and he co-chaired one of the pre-formation meetings of the Intellectual Property Constituency in Wellington, New Zealand."

Comments

Obligatory Man from U.N.C.L.E. reference

[Eudial]

I expect Illya and Napoleon to already be on their way to foil T.H.R.U.S.H's evil plans to infiltrate I.C.A.N.N, no doubt to build some sort of massive death ray to blow up buildings from across the planet.

Re:Obligatory Man from U.N.C.L.E. reference

[synth7]

Personally, I was hoping that Mr. Stoat-Throat-Warbler-Mangrove would get the nod, but that's what I get for backing the Silly Party.

Re:Obligatory Man from U.N.C.L.E. reference

[Anonymous Coward]

To get hold of Ilya you'll have to call NCIS

Re:Obligatory Man from U.N.C.L.E. reference

[FlyingSquidStudios]

I knew a chick that was into peter dengate-thrush but I thought it was just too kinky.

THRUSH making inroads

[$RANDOMLUSER]

Who you gonna call?

lolz

[Anonymous Coward]

ICANN has cheezburger?? LOLZ ... sorry, I couldn't resist.

Watchout! He is a lawyer!

[Herkum01]

An organization can go forward if they have someone who is involved with the industry and understands the underlying technology. If they are electing a lawyer it is pretty obvious what they consider important.

Re:Watchout! He is a lawyer!

[Reaperducer]

If they are electing a lawyer it is pretty obvious what they consider important.

If you're going to leap to conclusions about someone you've never met based on their profession, then I can assume you'll be picked to head the next committee of people in charge of living in their mothers' basements.

How about you do some research before you just bash the guy?

Re:Watchout! He is a lawyer!

[Anonymous Coward]

How about you do some research before you just bash the guy?

He's a lawyer --he's graduated from law school --and that means he' s smarter than me. I hate him. What's to research?

First decent icann chairman, ever

[rs79]

I know Peter pretty well. He one of the few sane people in the DNS mess and it's nice to see him replace the string of crazies that came before him.

Not that the chairman can do a whole lot with the pack of sharks that make up the rest of icann mind you.

Peter is a scream in real life, you'd never know he's a lawyer. I'd pay big money to see him and Berryhill on stage debating almost anything.

Now lets see if he can actually herald the creation of some new tlds.

Re:First decent icann chairman, ever

[OliverTaco]

I used to work for a domain registrar and the industry opinion of ICANN is pretty low - deservedly so. Next rant: The Olympic thugs and copyright law. :-) -OT

Re:First decent icann chairman, ever

[karl.auerbach]

I agree with you that PDT is good; he is fair, openminded, and smart. And the new vice chairman, Roberto Gaetano, is very much in tune with the need for ICANN to serve the community of internet users rather than just a few selected industrial "stakeholders".

But the changes will take time.

Re:First decent icann chairman, ever

[belmolis]

Just as a matter of curiosity, if he's good and at odds with most of the rest of them, how did he get elected?

Re:First decent icann chairman, ever

[Rich0]

Now lets see if he can actually herald the creation of some new tlds.

As long as they don't allow a period of time in advance for trademark and current domain holders to register corresponding domains in the new TLD. What's the point in having a new TLD if it just becomes a copy of .COM?

Sure, I can understand why Ford wouldn't want the owners of ihateford.com to register ford.new when it comes out. So, instead they lobby for a 30-day window or whatever so that they can grab ford.new before anybody else can. But then EVERYBODY else does the same thing, and before you know it the .new zone is essentially identical to .com, but everybody gets to pay twice as much per year for their domain registrations.

I can see the use for new TLDs when they actually mean something or have some functional purpose, but not if they're just generic domains like com/net/biz/info/whatever. The use of domains would actually need to be enforced for any new TLD scheme to work (ie if you put a standard website on a .mobi domain you lose it - or if you just redirect it to your .com site).

Is anyone else concerned?

[larry bagina]

I met Peter 3-4 years ago at a conference and all in all I think he'd be a good choice. Of course, ICANN politics and bureaucracy prevents any meaningful change. However, I'm somewhat concerned that he's never explained his role in the yahoo typosquatting incident.

Re:Is anyone else concerned?

[Wizy]

You sir, suck. I dont mind getting rick-rolled every now and then, and maybe a bad pic, but GOD DAMN...

Secret agents of the world unite!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp and Mata Hari are on the case! His evil internet numbers racket won't stand a chance! The free world is safe from the Tyranny of Octet Supremacy!!

Will Dengate-Thrush stop Storm?

[r7]

Under Cerf ICANN has degenerated into a politically paralyzed organization unable to pass ANY legislation. The biggest downside to this so far is the Storm worm. Storm only exists because "Domain Tasters" can register a domain for free and use it until the Tasting period expires. ICANN could fix this policy in a single meeting.

Domain Tasting works particularly well in combination with "fast flush" DNS. FF violates RFCs and is a particularly nefarious way of covering one's tracks, but registrars are helpless to do anything about it without an ICANN policy. Again, ICANN could fix this policy issue in a single meeting.

Without Tasting and FF there would be no Storm worm, and Storm only exists due to ICANN's dysfunctional board of directors. If Dengate-Thrush cannot fix ICANN is suspect Storm will force the US government to take over ICANN, probably by executive decree, and we all know how well the US government manages things (USPS, TSA, Amtrak, ...)

Re:Will Dengate-Thrush stop Storm?

[ScrewMaster]

Well, you can slam the Feds for a lot of things, but I'd say the U.S. government managed things quite well up until ICANN came into existence. That's because the folks that originally operated the domain name system were left to do their jobs without too much politicizing. I often wonder how things might have gone if Jon Postel were still running IANA ... he didn't suffer fools gladly, and he was usually right. Too bad he died.

Maybe if a lot of people hadn't pushed so hard to "internationalize" DNS management and just left well enough alone, we'd not be having these problems. When the original architects of a key subsystem of the global network are taken off the job and replaced with ineffective bureaucrats, well, you should expect to have problems.

Re:Will Dengate-Thrush stop Storm?

[rs79]

"Storm will force the US government to take over ICANN"

Icann was created out of thin air and staffed by the US Government. Staffed with poeple who knew absolutely nothing about the DNS. That was supposed to be a feature, not a bug. Of course it didn't turn out that way.

The US Government retains, as it always has, oversight over icann. Not that that does much good mind you.

Re:Will Dengate-Thrush stop Storm?

[r7]

Maybe if a lot of people hadn't pushed so hard to "internationalize" DNS management and just left well enough alone, we'd not be having these problems. Are you forgetting the US Corporation that took over Internic registration and policy (from SRI)? It was worse than ICANN, charging $100 per domain per year, hanging on to expired domains and auctioning them for a profit, not letting domain holders move to another registrar weeks before a domains was to expire... That corporation was Network Solutions. Yes, Verisign did purchase and spin-off NS, but it retained their core policies and continues to leverage its authority over registrars, fee-wise and otherwise, in ways that are far from democratic.

As bad as ICANN is I cannot help but think how many thousands of dollars and pre-expired domains I would have lost had ICANN not stepped in. Perhaps the devil you know IS better, but they re still not protecting the public interest.

Re:Will Dengate-Thrush stop Storm?

[Rich0]

That's because the folks that originally operated the domain name system were left to do their jobs without too much politicizing.

That would be because nobody had heard of the Internet back in 1990...

Try it today and I guarantee that it will become VERY political. I'm sure that back when the Secretary of Commerce and Labor was regulating ship-to-shore transmissions and police bands it was a very non-political task. The FCC of today is a completely different story - largely because the stakes have risen.

Re:Will Dengate-Thrush stop Storm?

[ScrewMaster]

Oh sure ... but I guess I'm saying that when you mix technology with politics it's the technology that suffers (and, of course, those who are dependent upon it.) The FCC is a different story not so much because the stakes have risen (although that is certainly true) but because the FCC's overall relevance was diminishing, and they (like good little bureaucrats) had to find some way to make themselves look important. To keep their jobs, in fact. So they've arrogated authority to themselves that frequently gets them in trouble with Congress and the courts, not to mention everyone else. The FCC's power needs to be severely curtailed in some areas, I think.

MOD PARENT TROLL

[Anonymous Coward]

Who the fuck modded that interesting?

Parent Post contains Porn Link

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not even good.