[NA-Discuss] Proposal to Change ICANN Compliance Oversight

Glenn McKnight mcknight.glenn at gmail.com
Wed Jan 28 23:47:50 UTC 2015


Garth has had  a long history in making  ICANN accountable and transparent
on the compliance  issue  and  I think NARALO  needs  to  bring this issue
into  the policy realm.
Glenn

Glenn McKnight
mcknight.glenn at gmail.com
skype  gmcknight
twitter gmcknight
.

On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 3:15 PM, Garth Bruen <gbruen at knujon.com> wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> Following a multi-year analysis of the way ICANN handles its compliance
> function and being directly involved in the existing process every level I
> have come to the conclusion that some changes are required if ICANN is to
> actually be accountable and transparent. There are some fundamental
> problems
> within the organization which prevent compliance from operating in a truly
> independent fashion which serves all parties equally.
>
> In short, ICANN compliance has been unable enforce the contract with
> registrars in specific cases and has been unable to explain why. Testing of
> the compliance process at every level has revealed technical failures,
> inconsistencies and lost complaints. Compliance staff failed to recognize
> violations for an extended period of time and later contradicted their own
> findings in later statements. The overall issue is we have been regularly
> assured that Compliance is not only fair but up to the challenges of an
> expanding Internet. Multiple discoveries call fairness and ability into
> question.
>
> Through cases presented directly by At-Large to Compliance staff we
> stressed
> the importance of accepting patterns of abuse and not simply single
> complaints. While Compliance staff agreed to this on transcript in
> Singapore, they later rejected the same patterns of abuse in private.
>
> One of the more problematic discoveries in this analysis concerns the
> oversight of compliance itself. As many of you are aware the current CEO
> moved compliance from under the Legal department to his direct supervision.
> This was seen by the community as a positive move. However, budget
> documents
> show that Compliance actually receives its funding from ICANN's Business
> division. Additional Compliance funds also still originate with Legal.
> Having the domain-business division fund Compliance appears to be an
> inherent conflict of interest and does not engender community trust. While
> we were told Compliance was being made more independent, this was not the
> case. It has also been revealed that the head of Compliance is the wife of
> a
> business associate of both the CEO and the head of ICANN's Business
> Division.
>
> The main recommendation listed in the proposal is to move Compliance
> outside
> the organization. I am also recommending that the community become directly
> involved in Compliance oversight.
>
> I have detailed the history and recommendations here:
>
> https://community.icann.org/display/NARALO/NARALO+Reports+on+ICANN+Complianc
> e+-+January+2015
>
> A formal memo to be forwarded to ALAC is here:
>
> https://community.icann.org/download/attachments/51417250/icann_alac_memo_on
> _compliance.pdf
>
> A timeline of critical events is also posted here:
>
> https://community.icann.org/download/attachments/51417250/APPROVEDONLINEPHAR
> MACY_public.pdf
>
> I am looking to move this agenda through At-Large starting within NARALO.
>
> Please feel free to send any questions or concerns to me and discuss this
> on
> the list.
>
> -Garth
>
> -------------------------------------
>
> Garth Bruen
> gbruen at knujon.com
>
> 617-947-3805
> http://www.knujon.com
> Chair of ICANN At-Large North America (naralo.org)
> http://www.linkedin.com/pub/4/149/724
> Twitter: @Knujon
> Skype: gobruen
>
> "If history is deprived of the Truth, we are left with nothing but an idle,
> unprofitable tale" -Polybius
>
>
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