[At-Large] New gTLD implementation Consultation Session London 15 July 2009

[Jorge Amodio]

On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 7:11 AM, Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond<ocl at gih.com> wrote:
> One more point, which I wanted to write separately:
>
> I've heard a lot of people say that Intellectual Property & the work of the IRT fell outside ICANN's scope.
>
> Someone asked this specific question & Jonathan Cohen, Senior Partner at Shapiro Cohen replied that this was false: according to him, the ICANN bylaws & principles mention protection of Intellectual Property & Marks, and that therefore, the IRT's proposals fall completely *in line* with ICANN's *core mission*.
>
> I'd be interested if this was confirmed/denied.

He is absolutely wrong, as expressed in the original White Paper,
MoU and subsequent amendments, from what is referred as
the JPA, and from ICANN's bylaws, it is totally out of the mandate
and role of ICANN to become a global clearinghouse for IP,
superseding international and national laws.

But nothing constrains ICANN to study the subject and ask
for expert advice about how to handle the issue.

IMHO, some of the issues are:
- the IRT WG constituency
- the lack of public participation in the process
- the conclusions and proposed implementation


ICANN's core mission is to:

- Coordinate the allocation and assignment of the three sets
  of unique identifiers for the Internet
- Coordinate the operation and evolution of the DNS root name
  server system
- Coordinate policy development reasonably and appropriately
  related to these technical functions

Also some folks are stretching beyond its original intent ICANN's
role "to ensure the stable and secure operation of the Internet's
unique identifier systems", arguing that under the umbrella of
"security" ICANN plays sort of a "regulator" role, which is also
wrong since ICANN was created as a technical coordination
body and not as any type of regulatory agency.

My .02
Jorge