[NA-Discuss] Internet Governance Project Calls For U.S.-Led International Agreement On ICANN

[Dharma Dailey]

Hey NARALO,

Just in case you haven't seen this....







June 9, 2009

Internet Governance Project Calls For U.S.-Led International Agreement  
On ICANN

Citing U.S. President Barack Obama’s 2008 statement that the “global  
challenges we face demand global institutions that work,” a group of  
academic experts called on the United States to take decisive action  
on the future of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and  
Numbers (ICANN). The group, Internet Governance Project (IGP), urged  
the U.S. Commerce Department in its comments to let the so-called  
Joint Project Agreement with ICANN expire and engage with other  
governments to create stronger and more internationalized legal  
arrangements that will keep the organization accountable to Internet  
users.

“It’s time to fish or cut bait on the ‘transition’ of the Internet’s  
naming and addressing system,” said Dr. Milton Mueller, professor at  
the Syracuse University School of Information Studies and chair of  
IGP’s Scientific Committee. “After 11 years, either ICANN is ready to  
be independent or it is not. If it still has problems, and it does,  
let’s take decisive action to fix them.”

While noting ICANN’s shortcomings, the IGP comment focused its  
criticism on the Commerce Department’s Joint Project Agreement (JPA)  
with ICANN. The JPA is a temporary form of supervision that allows the  
Commerce Department to negotiate goals and priorities for ICANN on a  
short time frame. The Internet Governance Project contends that the  
“JPA process is inherently broken” and “contributes to ICANN’s  
failings… It does nothing but invite the stakeholders in one  
privileged country to complain to their own government about policy  
outcomes they don’t like.”

Instead of continuing an endless series of renewals and revisions of  
the JPA, IGP argues that the “U.S. government needs to let the JPA  
expire and immediately initiate an international agreement that  
completes the transition of ICANN to a stable, accountable form of  
global governance.” That agreement should:


Affirm and formalize the nongovernmental status of ICANN
Formally recognize the sovereignty of other national governments over  
their top level domains
Prohibit ICANN from interfering with freedom of expression
Ensure the consistency of ICANN’s regulations with antitrust law and  
nondiscriminatory trade principles
Select an appropriate body of national corporate law under which ICANN  
should operate
Dissolve ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee
By taking the lead in the negotiation of an international agreement,  
IGP claims, “the United States can gain buy-in from other governments  
for its own model of Internet governance and ensure that the  
transition does not harm any of its own legitimate interests. But to  
succeed in completing the transition and to avoid fragmenting the  
Internet, the U.S. will have to win the acceptance of a critical mass  
of other countries and peoples.”

The Internet Governance Project is an alliance of academics that puts  
expertise into practical action in the fields of global governance and  
Internet policy. IGP’s Scientific Committee includes recognized  
experts in global governance and Internet policy from Syracuse  
University’s School of Information Studies and Maxwell School of  
Citizenship and Public Affairs, Technology University of Delft,  
Netherlands, the London School of Economics, and American University.

Learn more at http://blog.internetgovernance.org.

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