[NA-Discuss] DRAFT statement on .pr

[Eduardo Diaz]

Beau:

Great revision!. Just a one change - see below.

By the way, do anybody knows how to get all zone file changes to an specific
ccTLD since its inception?

Thanks.

-ed

On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 1:10 PM, Beau Brendler
<beaubrendler at earthlink.net>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

proceeded (or a similar verb) to remove the .pr...

> 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)
> 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.
>
>
>
>
> ------
> 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
> ------




-- 
NOTICE: The information contained in this e-mail message is intended only
for the personal and confidential use of the recipient(s) named above. If
you have received this communication by error, please notify us immediately
by e-mail, and delete the original message.