[NA-Discuss] DRAFT statement on .pr

[Alan Greenberg]

Thanks Eduardo.  I was aware of the general state, but not at that 
level of detail.

The point I was making, however, is that the statement should not 
just give the history, but some current status as well (although 
perhaps not at that level of detail).

Alan

At 15/10/2011 11:25 AM, Eduardo Diaz wrote:
>Alan:
>
>In terms of the court proceedings they are at the state 
>of  discovering the evidence. In the mean time the manager can still 
>operate the business but by court order can not sell the business 
>and make any new investments among other restrictions.
>
>According to IANA they have said that the only way that the .pr 
>ccTLD  re-delegation can happen is by means of a "hostile 
>re-delegation"  since the current operator is not willing to 
>delegate. I have not been able to find anything that explains what 
>that procedure is or how is performed. The question is: How do you 
>force a re-delegation when the operator owns the data?
>
>-ed
>
>
>On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 3:29 PM, Alan Greenberg 
><<mailto:alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca>alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca> wrote:
>Beau, it would be useful to include in the statement the current
>state of the issue with regard to ICANN, IANA and the courts.
>
>That is, is there a current dispute/process underway to address this
>and if so, what is the state.
>
>Alan
>
>At 14/10/2011 01:10 PM, Beau Brendler wrote:
> >Hello, all. Here is the statement on the .pr controversy prepared by
> >Eduardo with comments by Garth and final revisions by me. Please
> >read and give feedback promptly. I'd also like Eduardo to look over
> >it carefully to make sure there are no editing errors introduced.
> >
> >STATEMENT OF THE NORTH AMERICAN AT-LARGE REGIONAL ORGANIZATION ON
> >THE MISAPPROPRIATION OF THE .PR DOMAIN
> >
> >The North American At-Large Regional Organization wants to bring the
> >ICANN community's attention to a serious concern regarding
> >management 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 of the domain, among other
> >allegations.
> >
> >Background
> >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 the Internet through that domain.
> >
> >Within that program, the University of Puerto Rico, through its
> >Gauss Research Laboratory in the Natural Sciences department,
> >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 and 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 of this change, 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.
> >
> >Results of IANA Decision
> >It is apparent IANA, in its decision, considered the  request for a
> >name change in the sponsoring organization to be an administrative
> >task, not a re-delegation of the ccTLD. However, according to the
> >lawsuit, the ccTLD manager took action as if a full re-delegation
> >had been made, allowing him to move the operation outside the
> >university. Critically, in 2007, Gauss Research Laboratory, Inc.
> >filed a change in corporate status from non-profit to for-profit
> >with the Department of State of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
> >
> >Therefore, IANA's decision effectively resulted in the hijacking of
> >a public resource from a non-profit educational institution to a
> >for-profit corporation.
> >
> >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
> >(<http://ccnso.icann.org/workinggroups/final-drd-report-02may11-en. 
> pdf>http://ccnso.icann.org/workinggroups/final-drd-report-02may11-en.pdf)
> >clearly indicate it is not.
> >
> >NARALO applauds and supports the ccNSO working group's desire,
> >stated in that 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."
> >
> >Therefore, at the 2011 ICANN meeting in Dakar, NARALO will present
> >the facts and allegations in this case, as well as examples of
> >similar cases, in hopes of prompting a multi-stakeholder discussion
> >and approach to create such an environment worldwide.
>
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