Key Members of Congress Call for Permanent ICANN-U.S. Relationship
In a stunning rebuke of ICANN’s assertion that it had achieved sufficient accountability and professional stature to justify termination of its unique relationship with the U.S. government, the Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce as well as the Chairman of its Internet Subcommittee, along with eight other Committee members, dispatched a joint letter on August 4th to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke urging that the relationship between ICANN and the U.S. be made permanent and strengthened ( download the congressional letter).
While the letter is signed only by Democratic members of the Committee, it follows on the heels of a June 4th ICANN oversight hearing (see http://www.internetcommerce.org/node/190 ) at which ICANN encountered strong bipartisan criticism. The letter apparently stems from a feeling that it is time to move beyond repeated renewals of temporary MOUs and JPAs – and that the best way to achieve this is to enter into a strengthened arrangement under a “permanent instrument”.
The letter calls for the U.S to take steps to:
-Ensure that the Department of Commerce continues in its present relationship with ICANN.
-Provide for periodic review of ICANN’s performance in a number of key areas – including management of existing gTLDs and the implementation of any new ones.
-Outline steps to improve ICANN accountability.
-Create a mechanism for implementing new gTLDs and IDNs that assures appropriate consultation with stakeholders (which we note, by implication, seems to assert that such consultation on new gTLDs does not yet exist).
-Ensure that ICANN assure timely public access to accurate and complete WHOIS information critical to tracking malicious websites and domain names.
-Include commitments that ICANN will remain a U.S.-based not-for-profit corporation.
While Congress cannot bind the Obama Administration, it would be typical for members of the President’s party to engage in discussions prior to sending such a letter to assure that it is generally well-received. The current Joint Project Agreement between the U.S. and ICANN expires on September 30th, so the Administration must show its policy hand within the next few weeks.
Should the Obama Administration decide to request an extension of the JPA, much less a strengthened permanent relationship, there is a possibility that ICANN could refuse to enter into such an arrangement and that a confrontation could be ignited. However, as the letter notes in passing, the U.S trump card is the separate contract for the IANA functions of running the root zone servers.
An Obama Administration call for a permanent relationship will undoubtedly set off strong protests from other nations and organizations that have called for termination of ICANN’s special relationship with the U.S. In addition to these international repercussions, the mechanisms called for by these Congressional Members could well delay the introduction of new gTLDs. While the full implications of this unexpected communication cannot yet be envisioned, expectations that the U.S. would request a short extension of the JPA in contemplation of full ICANN independence in the next year or two may well need revision. All we can advise is to stay tuned as September 30 approaches.
About MINC
Formed in 2000, MINC is the Multilingual Internet Names Consortium, aims to promote a multilingual Internet through the facilitation of research development, education and deployments of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) and other naming systems of Internet navigation. MINC’s work dates back to mid 90’s to promote the Multilingualization of the Internet, the internationalization of Internet names including but not limited to multilingual Internet domain names and keywords. Over the years, MINC has established a wide range of links with international organizations, stakeholder organizations and other processes including The United Nations, the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), ICANN, ITU, WIPO, IETF, as well as language groups such as JDNA (Japanese), CDNA (Chinese), INFITT (Tamil), Euro-LINC (European Languages), CYINC (Cyrillic), GLWG (Georgian), RLWG (Russian ) as well as The Arabic language and scripts WG (Arabic) and ULWG (Urdu). Our language groups develop their own language and variant tables, and coordinate with each other on these tables. They also discuss other IDN related issues like the development of Dispute Resolution Policies and the use of IDN in software applications. For more information about MINC, please refer to the website at http://www.minc.org or contact MINC secretariat at hvx07@nrmx.lit.
About MINC ICMC
Formed in 2006, MINC's International Coordination Mechanism Council (ICMC) aims to coordinate with all local authorities and jurisdictions and known operators of IDN TLDs in various local jurisdictions, for a an equitable multilingual Internet and information society based on mutual respect, local empowerment and the right of all people for self-E-determination as a function of their human rights.
ICMC Technical Coordination;
This MINC ICMC ad hoc committee coordinates the technical parameters involved in supporting a truly multilingual domain name system. All deployments of IDN should be Internet RFC- compliant and registered and tracked with MINC's IDN database.