[ALAC] Board Liaison July/August report

[Wendy Seltzer]

Preliminary minutes from the July 31 Board Meeting are posted at
<http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/prelim-report-31jul08.htm>

As you can see, the Board discussed the GNSO Restructuring and was
interested in how it would accommodate new interests. The Board has
asked staff for analysis on implementation issues.  I raised our concern
about the inclusion of "individuals," not limited to "registrants" or
existing constituencies. Further At-Large perspective would be welcome
in this continuing discussion.

You will note further that implementation of new gTLD processes moves
forward, with little further opportunity for comments.

As for upcoming issues, I would recommend that ALAC review the Registrar
Accreditation Agreement and its amendments.  As registrars are one of
the most individual-facing parts of the ICANN web, and the ICANN
contract the uniform requirements they must follow, we should at least
be making recommendations (even if they are likely to be ignored, again)
as to how these contracts could better serve the interests of individual
Internet users.  When even the Department of Commerce is concerned about
ICANN's lack of contractual enforcement -- shouldn't we make another
plug for third-party beneficiary status for the affected public?

--Wendy

-- 
Wendy Seltzer -- wendy at seltzer.org
phone: +1.914.374.0613
Visiting Professor, American University Washington College of Law
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html
http://www.chillingeffects.org/
https://www.torproject.org/