[At-Large] ITU versus ICANN

[Sivasubramanian M]

On Sat, Oct 9, 2010 at 9:47 PM, John R. Levine <johnl at iecc.com> wrote:

> > One proposal from Russian-speaking countries has gone so far as to call
> for
> > scrapping the GAC, and have ITU give itself veto power over all ICANN
> board
> > decisions. Even a compromise would essentially undermine the finality of
> any
> > ICANN Board policy.
>
> It's hard to see how the ITU could force itself on ICANN.  The US
> government would have to agree, which seems rather unlikely.  As someone
> else has noted, as a California non-profit ICANN cannot give anyone a veto
> over the board, so it would have to reincorporate somewhere else, or the
> US would have to sign a treaty specifically giving the ITU that authority.
>

These legal complications were probably well understood, yet this proposal
surfaced, at the ITU Plenipotentiary. Irrespective of the legal feasibility
or workability, this was calculatedly brought up. The Internet Community is
silent on this, because the Diplomatic impact of even this unworkable idea
is unknown. We can't take ITU mischief so lightly.

In this context, in my article I raised a larger question which definitely
requires attention: Should the Telecommunication Business Union continue to
have the privilege of this extraordinary partnership with the Governments of
the World?

Sivasubramanian M


> Fat chance.
>
> Sometimes when it sounds like a lot of hot air, it really is a lot of hot
> air.  I entirely agree that ICANN has a lot of self-inflicted wounds and
> self-generated enemies, but this isn't going anywhere.
>
> R's,
> John
> _______________________________________________
> At-Large mailing list
> At-Large at atlarge-lists.icann.org
> https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large
>
> At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
>