Thursday, July 14, 2005
ICANN TO CONSIDER EU CONCERNS
By Rebecca Wanjiku, Highway Africa News Agency
July 17, 2005
Luxembourg- Faced with increasing concerns over its relations with other countries, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has started a process aimed at addressing issues raised by some European countries.
The Policy Development Process (PDP) is calculated to determine whether there is need to amend ICANN bylaws as demanded by some European country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) under the auspices of the Council for European national top level domain Registries (Centr).
The Country-code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO), one of eight constituencies that make up the policy-making element of ICANN, formally took the decision to establish the PDP. The ccNSO also maintains country-specific top-level domains.
Asked whether the new initiative is a sign that ICANN was submitting to demands made by Centr, Chris Disspain, ccNSO chairperson said the process was normal practice for ICANN.
"ICANN's goal is to be as inclusive as possible. Bylaws were drafted three years ago when ccNSO did not exist, it is only proper if we revisit the process," says Disspain.
In this regard, Disspain identifies the policy process as a forum for everyone to raise their concerns since not all countries have the same complaints about the bylaws.
The Centr wrote a strongly worded letter attacking ICANN as being a quasi regulator and taking a misrepresentative approach from reality.
The process will be viewed as a major step towards convincing all European country registries to join ccNSO which almost failed to take-off for lack of support from the European region.
To salvage the situation, ICANN was forced to re-align geographical boundaries and move the Cayman Islands to Europe to push up the required numbers. ICANN bylaws stipulate that there must be a minimum of 30 members with at least three members from each of the five ICANN geographical regions. When the majority of European countries failed to join, the Cayman Islands were allowed to join the European region. The Cayman Islands is a UK territory albeit with its own Legislative Assembly and Executive Council.
In short, Centr wants the bylaws rewritten so that:
ICANN does not have the power to set policies that affect ccTLDs without going through the ccNSO.
Members can decide on procedures, fees and policies themselves.
ccNSO policies do not bind non-ccNSO members.
ccNSO policies should only be rejected by the ICANN Board in very exceptional circumstances.
Policies can only be passed with a quorum of 50% of ccNSO members.
The ICANN Board cannot change ccNSO policy without explicit permission of two-thirds of ccNSO members.
July 17, 2005
Luxembourg- Faced with increasing concerns over its relations with other countries, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has started a process aimed at addressing issues raised by some European countries.
The Policy Development Process (PDP) is calculated to determine whether there is need to amend ICANN bylaws as demanded by some European country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) under the auspices of the Council for European national top level domain Registries (Centr).
The Country-code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO), one of eight constituencies that make up the policy-making element of ICANN, formally took the decision to establish the PDP. The ccNSO also maintains country-specific top-level domains.
Asked whether the new initiative is a sign that ICANN was submitting to demands made by Centr, Chris Disspain, ccNSO chairperson said the process was normal practice for ICANN.
"ICANN's goal is to be as inclusive as possible. Bylaws were drafted three years ago when ccNSO did not exist, it is only proper if we revisit the process," says Disspain.
In this regard, Disspain identifies the policy process as a forum for everyone to raise their concerns since not all countries have the same complaints about the bylaws.
The Centr wrote a strongly worded letter attacking ICANN as being a quasi regulator and taking a misrepresentative approach from reality.
The process will be viewed as a major step towards convincing all European country registries to join ccNSO which almost failed to take-off for lack of support from the European region.
To salvage the situation, ICANN was forced to re-align geographical boundaries and move the Cayman Islands to Europe to push up the required numbers. ICANN bylaws stipulate that there must be a minimum of 30 members with at least three members from each of the five ICANN geographical regions. When the majority of European countries failed to join, the Cayman Islands were allowed to join the European region. The Cayman Islands is a UK territory albeit with its own Legislative Assembly and Executive Council.
In short, Centr wants the bylaws rewritten so that:
ICANN does not have the power to set policies that affect ccTLDs without going through the ccNSO.
Members can decide on procedures, fees and policies themselves.
ccNSO policies do not bind non-ccNSO members.
ccNSO policies should only be rejected by the ICANN Board in very exceptional circumstances.
Policies can only be passed with a quorum of 50% of ccNSO members.
The ICANN Board cannot change ccNSO policy without explicit permission of two-thirds of ccNSO members.
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