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To whom is ICANN answerable?

2001-02-08 05:40:03
I found this news report of some concern, not because of what ICANN is supposed to have done or not done, but because it seems there is a presumption by some that ICANN is answerable to US Congress. I understood that the whole purpose of setting up ICANN was to provide Internet governance that was trans-national, not answerable to US Government.

#g
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"ICANN Faces Hearing in Congress Over Domain Selections"
Computerworld Online (02/02/01); Thibodeau, Patrick

On Feb. 8, the House Commerce Committee will hold a hearing to examine whether ICANN's approval of only seven new top level domains hampers competition. Critics of ICANN will likely request that the committee make ICANN reopen the selection process. Congress might even attempt to get the Department of Commerce to keep the new TLDs from being introduced, according to insiders. DotTV CEO Lou Kerner has been discussing the issue with the House Commerce Committee and might testify at the coming hearing. Other critics include the ACLU and many of the unsuccessful TLD applicants, several of which might take ICANN to court. Others think ICANN's limited introduction was wise. ICANN's former chairwoman, Esther Dyson, wanted to introduce more TLDs, but she sides with ICANN, saying that the organization needed to limit the number of TLDs because of technical concerns. ICANN's choice was "reasonable" at the time, asserts Dyson. "It's pretty obvious that more TLDs means more opportunity for small businesses and entrepreneurs to get meaningful domain names that reflect their business interests as well as [their] free speech interests," says Domain Name Rights Coalition President Mikki Barry. The controversy ought to be expected, as there would be no need for ICANN if there were no difficult decisions to be made, asserts Jonathan Zittrain, the co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. The government would not have the support of businesses if it attempted to resume control over the domain name process, asserts Rick Lane, director of e-commerce
and Internet technology at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/02/02/010202hnicann.xml



------------
Graham Klyne
(GK(_at_)ACM(_dot_)ORG)