[NA-Discuss] IMPORTANT: US Senate hearings on new gTLDs

[Garth Bruen at Knujon.com]

Ok, here's the problem. The multistakeholder consensus was contingent on 
those overall improvements in ICANN’s accountability and transparency to the 
global Internet community - and what has come now is backtracking by the 
Registrars and a complete lack of transparency in that decision process.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Joly MacFie" <joly at punkcast.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2011 1:07 AM
To: "Avri Doria" <avri at ella.com>
Cc: "NARALO Discussion List" <na-discuss at atlarge-lists.icann.org>
Subject: Re: [NA-Discuss] IMPORTANT: US Senate hearings on new gTLDs

> As 
> noted<http://www.mindsandmachines.com/2011/12/u-s-government-strongly-affirms-icann-model-and-new-gtlds/>by
> Anthony Van Couvering. Larry Strickling was also talking on Thursday,
> across town.
>
> http://www.ntia.doc.gov/speechtestimony/2011/remarks-assistant-secretary-strickling-practising-law-institutes-29th-annual-te
>
> Here's an excerpt:
>
> For example, at ICANN, a multistakeholder process that ran for six years
>> resulted in the approval last summer of an expansion of top level 
>> domains.
>> This process involved global stakeholders from the business community,
>> civil society, registries, registrars, and governments.  At NTIA, we 
>> worked
>> throughout the process to make sure that ICANN adequately addressed
>> government concerns and we have also spent significant time the last two
>> years pushing for overall improvements in ICANN’s accountability and
>> transparency to the global Internet community.
>>
>
>
>> Nonetheless, we are now seeing parties that did not like the outcome of
>> that multistakeholder process trying to collaterally attack the outcome 
>> and
>> seek unilateral action by the U.S. government to overturn or delay the
>> product of a six-year multistakeholder process that engaged folks from 
>> all
>> over the world.  The multistakeholder process does not guarantee that
>> everyone will be satisfied with the outcome. But it is critical to
>> preserving the model of Internet governance that has been so successful 
>> to
>> date that all parties respect and work through the process and accept the
>> outcome once a decision is reached. When parties ask us to overturn the
>> outcomes of these processes, no matter how well-intentioned the request,
>> they are providing “ammunition” to other countries who attempt to justify
>> their unilateral actions to deny their citizens the free flow of
>> information on the Internet.  This we will not do.  There is too much at
>> stake here.
>>
>
>
>> But we are sensitive to the concerns being raised by some companies about
>> the introduction of new gTLDs. Today, Chairman Rockefeller held an
>> important oversight hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee on the 
>> subject
>> of how ICANN will expand top level domains. We agree with the Chairman’s
>> concerns over how this program will be implemented and its potential
>> negative effect if not implemented properly. We will closely monitor the
>> execution of the program and are committed to working with stakeholders,
>> including U.S. industry, to mitigate any unintended consequences.
>
>
> -- 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
> WWWhatsup NYC - http://wwwhatsup.com
> http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com
> VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - http://isoc-ny.org
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -
> ------
> NA-Discuss mailing list
> NA-Discuss at atlarge-lists.icann.org
> https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/na-discuss
>
> Visit the NARALO online at http://www.naralo.org
> ------
>