ICANN Board Won’t be ‘Swayed’ by NTIA Claim of Failed Promises, Says Member
It’s unclear whether ICANN will vote this week to unleash potentially thousands of new generic top-level domains, board director Peter Dengate Thrush said at a news briefing Monday in Cartagena, Colombia. “We want to get it right,” he said, saying board members won’t be “swayed by some of the passion” that’s around, including a strongly critical letter from NTIA accusing the Internet body of failing to live up to its promises to the U.S. government (WID Dec 6 p2).
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The letter didn’t come as a surprise, because ICANN receives many passionate communications from community players, Dengate Thrush said. One of the issues that NTIA raised was a claim of ICANN’s failure to complete an economic study on the possible costs and benefits of expanding the namespace. But Dengate Thrush said ICANN had originally asked for economic studies, to understand the domain market better. The focus by some on getting economists to say the new gTLDs will be a success is misplaced, he said.
ICANN hired respected economists recommended by NTIA and paid about $1 million to take up the issue, but predicting the value of innovation presents a “very broad economic enigma,” said President Rod Beckstrom. The studies, phase II of which ICANN posted late last week, provide input for continuing discussion, he said. ICANN appreciated that the Department of Commerce expressed its thoughts openly by posting the letter on the website for public comments on new gTLDs, he said. The letter will be considered along with all other input, he said.
The recent posting of the economic report could mean that the final gTLD applicants’ guidebook won’t be voted on this week, Dengate Thrush said. Board members are concerned about allowing enough time for the community to consider the reports, and the comment period on the final guidebook ends Friday, the day of the board meeting, he said. Directors could vote on a substantial number of portions of the process, but the critical piece is the start date and it’s unclear where the board is on that, he said.
Beckstrom and Dengate Thrush denied that ICANN breached its affirmation of commitments, saying the letter doesn’t actually use that word. Moreover, Dengate Thrush said, ICANN doesn’t derive its legitimacy from that document, but from country-code top-level domain managers, registries, registrars and those who participate in its policy debates. The affirmation is a powerful document because in it, ICANN confirms to the world, not just the U.S. government, that it will live up to its commitments, he said.
The economics of introducing new gTLDs is one of several unresolved “overarching” issues, Kurt Pritz, the senior vice president for stakeholder relations, said in an earlier meeting session. Others are how to protect trademark rights, guard against malicious conduct and ensure that the near-simultaneous rollout of IPv6, internationalized domain names and new gTLDs doesn’t destabilize the root zone, he said.
Perhaps the most contentious issue has been that of morality and public order, Pritz said. The final applicant guidebook adopts several recommendations of an ICANN working group, but there’s no agreement yet on what kinds of names governments should be able to oppose in the public interest or what standards opposition should be based on, he said.
Dengate Thrush was asked whether the board will complete approval of .xxx. Directors tentatively approved the application last summer but asked the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) to clarify its advice on the subject, Dengate Thrush said during the news conference. The board must explain any action it takes against the committee’s advice, so directors must be clear on what governments think, he said. Once the committee details its thoughts on .xxx, the board will act as quickly as possible, he said.
The NTIA letter, a threat by the International Olympic Committee to sue for a special trademark exemption, and .xxx amount to a “fairly typical” caseload for the ICANN meeting, Dengate Thrush said. Board members are considering how to deal with NTIA and appear to be working through the .xxx issue without much of the “hysteria” formerly surrounding it, he said. Relations with the GAC are better, including a recent letter of support from China, he said. The meeting continues through Friday.