[NA-Discuss] DRAFT statement on .pr

[Eduardo Diaz]

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 <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)
> >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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