[Dryerase] Alarm!--Struggle for public control over internet

[Alarm!Wires]

Struggle for public control over internet
Director of ICANN draws attention to flaws in governance process that 
mirror criticisms of Santa Cruz local government

by Fhar Miess
The Alarm! Newspaper Collective

In October of 2000, Cable News Network, known across the globe as CNN, 
issued a “cease and desist” order to Maya Online, a Shanghai-based 
internet company that had registered the CNNEWS.COM domain name with a 
Chinese registrar named Eastern Communications.  A series of legal 
proceedings followed, with contradictory rulings in China and—in April 
of this year—in the US.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) became 
involved shortly afterward.  ICANN was originally formed by the United 
States Department of Commerce as a California non-profit organization 
providing international oversight in the assignment of internet domain 
names and addresses.  ICANN issued a demand to Eastern Communications 
that they transfer the domain name to CNN, despite the fact that the 
presiding US Federal judge clearly stated no intention of dictating the 
activities of a Chinese registrar.  Maya Online further accused ICANN 
of “secret” communications with the registrar.

This sort of secrecy and unwarranted assumption of authority has earned 
ICANN a consistently bad reputation with members of the internet 
community.  One of ICANN’s most vehement critics has been Karl Auerbach, 
a resident of Santa Cruz.  In an open and public online election, 
Auerbach was elected as ICANN’s At-Large Director for the North American 
region in November 2000.  He frequently denounced the organization, 
calling attention to its excessive secrecy, lack of public process, lack 
of accountability, insufficient oversight by the Board of Directors and 
poor business practices.

As a Director with ICANN, Auerbach has made attempts on many occassions 
to reform the organization.  These attempts have been largely thwarted 
by the professional staff of ICANN, who have withheld documents from 
Auerbach despite repeated verbal and written requests.  Auerbach finally 
filed suit against ICANN in March of this year.  On Monday, July 29, the 
California Superior Court ruled in Auerbach’s favor and compelled ICANN 
to provide Auerbach with the requested documents within a week.

At the root of Auerbach’s tiff with ICANN is a struggle to prevent the 
creeping privatization of the internet.  In a paper titled “A 
Prescription to Promote the Progress of Science and Useful Arts” he 
charges that ICANN “is a predominately non-elected body that is 
responsive primarily to those industry groups that stand to gain by 
ICANN’s decisions.  ICANN is effectively accountable to no one.”

Unfortunately, Auerbach will have little time to effect real change in 
ICANN.  His term expires this November.  Also, according to a 
declaration made by Auerbach to the California Supreme Court, ICANN—over 
the course of two board meetings—“took a sequence of steps that 
eliminated the public seats on ICANN’s Board of Directors and dispensed 
with future public elections on any matter within ICANN.”

Auerbach had more to say in a prepared statement, dated June 12 of this 
year, before the Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space of the 
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.  “My seat on 
ICANN’s Board of Directors, and the seat of every other publicly elected 
Director, will cease to exist on October 31 of this year,” he said.  “On 
that date real public representation within ICANN will end.  After that 
date, ICANN will be effectively controlled by a small group of 
privileged ‘stakeholders’.…That grant of favored status is mirrored by a 
nearly total exclusion of the public and of non-commercial and small 
businesses interests. These have been given only token voices.”

Even these stakeholder arrangements are largely “facades,” according to 
Auerbach.  “Most of ICANN’s decisions are made by its staff, often 
without consultation with the Board of Directors.”

Auerbach’s criticisms of ICANN will likely resonate with some of his 
fellow Santa Cruzans.  Throughout the process of considering amended 
ordinances in the Downtown Business District, the Santa Cruz City 
Council has faced similar charges of excluding public input and 
replacing full accountability to an “at-large” public with a priviledged 
yet ill-defined group of “stakeholders,” in combination with the largely 
unilateral initiatives of City Staff.

And the similarities don’t end there.  “By denying people and 
organizations the ability to form fluid coalitions and relationships 
according to their self-perceived interests the ‘stakeholder’ concept 
has made compromise within ICANN exceedingly difficult and rare,” writes 
Auerbach.  This sort of artificial categorization mirrors the City 
Council’s process, which at its most galvanizing point divided the 
public into those for and against the ordinance ammendments.

Of course, it is dangerous to conflate ICANN, a California non-profit 
corporation that presumes to impose a global governance structure over 
the entire internet, with the City of Santa Cruz, a small municipal body 
attempting to legislate and enforce “decorum” on its main drag.  But, at 
the same time, we cannot let ourselves be duped when City legislators 
attempt to denigrate the significance of their exclusionary practices by 
drawing attention to the much more nefarious activities of their 
counterparts at the Federal level.  Whether it is a relatively small 
municipality like Santa Cruz or a “private government organization” 
(PGO) like ICANN or an umbrella of repressive agencies like the Homeland 
Security Office or a corporate malefactor like WorldCom, these movements 
toward secrecy and highly-stratified management and away from public 
process and accountability are not unrelated.
 
All content Copyleft © 2002 by The Alarm! Newspaper. Except where noted 
otherwise, this material may be copied and distributed freely in whole 
or in part by anyone except where used for commercial purposes or by 
government agencies.

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