[WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: Governance implications of the Macedonia story

[Milton Mueller]

For anyone who lacks information about what is 
going on, here is a news story that explains:

http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=369

Veni, you proposed a variety of ways in which technical 
measures could be used in the short term to allow affected
individuals to bypass the block. While I praised you for bringing 
it to the ICANN baord's attention, I don't think that the short-
term fixes you discussed really address the problem in 
a systematic way. 

That is why I took the discussion to the 
governance list, where I framed it as a governance
issue. This requires longer-term fixes that would involve 
rule  changes by ICANN or someone else regarding 
registrar or ISP conduct. Obviously those longer term
changes don't help the individuals immediately affected.
So both approaches are necessary. But the real 
business of this caucus (governance) and of the WGIG,
is to investigate governance problems, not work-arounds.

--MM

>>> veni at veni.com 10/5/2004 3:19:19 AM >>>
Milton,
while I have commented on the original message in my mail to the WSIS 
plenary mailing list, but not in the governance list, why do you tend
to 
copy both lists? You should have either responded only in the plenary,
or - 
when cc: governance, you should have quoted my message, and not the 
original. Because people at the governance, who are not reading the
plenary 
would not know why my name is involved, what has ICANN to do with that,
etc.

Perhaps you could have quoted my note, too, which gives some possible
ideas 
how to solve the problems. And, of course, your proposals how to solve
such 
problems would have been welcome. As one is always "part of the
problem, 
part of the solution or part of the landscape";)

I really think we have to be more precise when using quotes

v.


At 20:42 04-10-04  -0400, Milton Mueller wrote:

>The suspension of domain name registration service to
>Macedonia and other targeted countries is a very important
>story that reveals the need for a more rationalized approach
>to Internet governance.
>
>This incident is very instructive and anyone interested
>in the WGIG should pay attention to how it happened
>and how it is handled in the future. It involves the use of
>IP addresses as a regulatory tool, the globalization of
>the registrar business, and the nature of the global
>contracts through which ICANN's internet governance
>is conducted.
>
>Cheers for Veni for bringing it to the ICANN Board's
>attention. In reading Vint Cerf's message, however, I
>hope he will modify his observation that "businesses have
>no obligation to do business in every country."
>
>I agree with that norm, but in this case the registrar has
>*already* chosen to collect money from Macedonian
>customers and is cutting them off from managing their
>domains. That is not a legitimate business choice, that is
>"take the money and run," i.e. theft. Registrars should be
>required to transfer legitimately paid for domains to other
>registrars if they choose to suspend service to an entire
>country.
>
>--MM

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