----- Original Message ----- From: "Milton Mueller" <Mueller@syr.edu> To: <NCUC-DISCUSS@listserv.syr.edu> Cc: <governance@lists.cpsr.org>; <iza@anr.org>; <vb@bertola.eu.org> Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 5:32 PM Subject: [governance] Emergency resolution on .xxx recall - and thedestruction of ICANN's integrity
Many of us have warned for years that the US's unilateral political power over ICANN was a problem. Too many people didn't listen. Now that power is being displayed and used in a way that even the most abject apologists for the system cannot deny.
Over the weekend ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee transmitted a letter asking ICANN to reverse its decision to approve the .xxx TLD. A letter from the US Commerce Dept supporting that request has also been filed. http://www.icann.org/correspondence/gallagher-to-cerf-15aug05.pdf
I believe it is essential that NCUC, ALAC and WSIS civil society join together in a resolution or letter to ICANN, its GAC and the US Commerce department expressing concern over and opposition to the GAC's attempt to reverse the .xxx delegation.
What is at stake here is the very model of the Internet as a private sector and civil society-driven institution, and as an INTERNATIONAL institution. This is not about .xxx per se. (although it should be noted that all .xxx proposes to do is openly and accurately identify porn on the Internet, which is in every legitimate user's interest. The creation of a .xxx TLD does not CREATE pornography, which we all know is already out there.)
The decision by the US to exercise in an unambiguous way its unilateral power over ICANN has been made in a surprising context. But I have checked the facts and there is no doubt about it. The US Commerce Department's Deputy Secretary David A. Sampson, confirmed by the Senate July 22, is responsible for the sudden decision of the US to support the GAC's attack on ICANN's delegation process. Sampson was influenced by the Family Research Council, a culturally conservative religious group in the US, which made it an issue. Sampson is a graduate of David Lipscomb University , the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and earned his doctorate at Abilene Christian University. http://www.commerce.gov/bios/sampson_bio.htm
ICANN participants must stand up for the integrity of the institution as a global, legitimate policy making system. One government cannot be given an arbitrary and unlimited power to reverse the result of a decision making process that has gone on for five years and consumed millions of dollars in resources, just because a domestic political constituency doesn't like the result.
If this recall is allowed to go forward unchallenged, governments will have asserted and gained a form of arbitrary power over the Internet at its very core. ICANN's often flawed attempt to be a bottom-up organization will be completely defeated, forever. This is a very important issue. It is essential for ALAC, NCUC and other civil society actors to unite on this.
I will be drafting a proposed short resolution. I hope to transmit it to these lists soon.
Dr. Milton Mueller Syracuse University School of Information Studies http://www.digital-convergence.org http://www.internetgovernance.org
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