[LINK] (FWD) ICANN N America Director's Opinions on Internet Governance

[rsedc]

He appears to have many interesting ideas on the organization of
ICANN.

http://www.cavebear.com/ialc/platform.htm

<quote>

  Domain Name Policy - Top Level Domain Policy

  My position has always been that there ought to be no impediment to
the creation of new TLDs -
  but with one proviso: There is a limit out there somewhere on the
number of TLDs, probably
  somewhere between one and several million, where DNS loses its value
as a hierarchical system.

  So I'd let anybody operate any TLD for any purpose they chose - the
creation and imposition of   
  charters is up to the TLD operator.  (And an operator could change
the charter if the contract 
  with his/her customers  doesn't prohibit it.)

  <snip/>

  My concern about the one-to-several million number of TLDs needs to
be handled by the imposition 
  of some sort of barriers to prevent unproductive collecting.  I am
somewhat afraid of monetary 
  barriers because that allows the rich to buy in.  I personally like
lottery systems - I kinda like 
  some sort of plan that says:

     We will introduce 1,000[*] new TLD's slots each year.  Every
natural person is entitled to 
     purchase one "ticket" (perhaps for some nominal price to recover
*reasonable* costs[**].)  The 
     1000 winners will be selected in sequence - and each winner gets
to select the character string 
     they want to use for his/her TLD - there would be absolutely no
examination of the name in 
     terms of trademark or obscenity - that kind of thing ought to be
up to the external legal
     system. (In case of duplicate character strings, priority goes to
the winner that came first in 
     that year's drawing sequence.)  I'd allow the winners to sell
their tickets or prizes at any 
     time (including a winning ticket that has not yet selected the
character string) for any price 
     they can get.

<quote>


His comments at the Tenth Conference On Computers, Freedom & Privacy
CFP 2000:

  http://www.cavebear.com/cavebear/growl/issue_4.htm

<quote>

  The fact of the matter is this - The Domain Name System is merely an
elective service. DNS can be    offered by any number of providers and
users can pick and chose among those providers.

  ICANN fails to realize that any one can, without asking any
permission, create a new DNS root free   of the burdens, costs, and
limitations imposed by ICANN.

  <snip/>

  IP addresses do indeed need to be allocated in a rational manner.

  However, that is a job that has been done, and continues to be done
rather well by the 3 regional 
  address registries.  They were doing it before ICANN was conceived;
they could continue to do it 
  if ICANN were to disappear.

  I might add that the three regional registries have made it clear
that they are uncomfortable with
  ICANN and that they are ready to bolt and act independently.

</quote>