[NA-Discuss] DRAFT communique to CCNSO working group
Beau Brendler
beaubrendler at earthlink.net
Mon Dec 12 17:27:28 UTC 2011
Greetings. One of the action items from the last NARALO meeting, as a
follow-up to the .PR issue, was to prepare a communication from the NARALO
to the appropriate subcommittee within the CCNSO that is looking at reform
-- I believe it is called MAC or some other acronymial thing. Cheryl
Langdon-Orr has offered to convey this communique, since she is at-large
liaison to the CCNSO, so I am sure she can tell us the exact name of the
appropriate recipient group and make sure this gets to them.
You'll notice some similar language in the draft, I pared down the original
draft statement to about three paragraphs, and then added some substance
from the Knujon research. Please feel free to add your comments,
corrections, etc.
DRAFT
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The North American At-Large Regional Organization is concerned about
the management of the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico's country code top-level
domain, .pr, following a June 2011 lawsuit filed by The University of Puerto
Rico against the domain's manager alleging misappropriation of public funds
and inappropriate ownership claim, among other allegations.
In 1988, the U.S. National Science Foundation established a program to
expand use of the Internet outside the United States by establishing a
domain registration that would allow each country connected to the network
to offer access through that domain. The University of Puerto Rico, through
its Gauss Research Laboratory requested the domain ".pr" (institutional
research number 8818283, "Support for the Participation of the University of
Puerto Rico in the NSFNet"). This proposal was approved in 1989.
Administration of the .pr domain was designated to the "Gauss Research
Laboratory" with the university as manager.
In 2006, the .pr ccTLD's manager contacted the Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority to request a name change in the sponsoring organization, from the
University of Puerto Rico to a corporation with the same name, including the
abbreviations "INC. i.e. Gauss Research Laboratory, Inc." As a result, Gauss
Research Laboratory Inc. was permitted to remove the .pr ccTLD operations
outside the university campus, as well as redirect any funds generated by
domain purchases.
The NARALO is concerned the apparent "re-delegation" of the .pr domain
represents a potential abuse of public trust and misappropriation of
Internet resources. In addition, while the controversy over Puerto Rico's
country-code domain may seem unusual, findings presented in the final report
of the ccNSO Delegation and Redelegation Working Group
([1]http://ccnso.icann.org/workinggroups/final-drd-report-02may11-en.pdf)
clearly indicate it is not.
Further problematic findings in the ccTLD space were documented by Knujon,
an at-large structure in the NARALO, in a June 5, 2009 report
([2]http://www.knujon.com/ccTLD_Research_knujon_052109.pdf).
We would like to call the ccNSOâs specific attention to pages 9- 10 and
17-20 in the report, which specifically name ccTLDs frequently used by
criminals, and other country code domains potentially at risk for the same
kind of abuse, as well as apparently dormant ccTLDs issued, for instance, to
islands populated by birds and sea mammals, but no humans.
NARALO applauds and supports the ccNSO working group's desire, stated in its
working groupâs report, to "create an environment for making consistent and
predictable decisions regarding the delegation, re-delegation and retirement
of ccTLDs while enhancing accountability and transparency."
We would like to encourage the working group to directly address the issues
raised in the Knujon report, as well as disclose, for accountability and
transparencyâs sake, pertinent discussion on the .pr situation. The NARALO
believes that the public needs to be fully informed about this valuable
Internet resource, how it is being managed, and what steps are being taken
to ensure its proper administration in the future.
References
1. http://ccnso.icann.org/workinggroups/final-drd-report-02may11-en.pdf
2. http://www.knujon.com/ccTLD_Research_knujon_052109.pdf
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