ICANN rec. for background checks of new gtld applicants is inappropriate, prejudicial, outside scope, unworkable & unsupported by GNSO
It is entirely inappropriate and prejudicial for ICANN to call for background checks on new gtld applicants. i) Background checks were not something the GNSO recommended but is something ICANN staff created, so there is no community endorsement of this invasive measure. ii) Preventing "terrorism" is widely outside ICANN's scope and mission. iii) there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism. iv) this policy will prejudice non- westerners, especially people from Islamic nations or the middle-east. Not long ago, the US Govt. classified Nelson Mandela as a "terrorist", so he'd be ineligible for a domain in the day under the policy proposed by ICANN staff. Ronald Reagan famously said "one man's terrorist, is another man's freedom fighter". So national perspectives vary and will disagree. ICANN should stay out of having to make such decisions and take sides in these battles that rightfully belong in political and legal realms. Furthermore, including "intellectual property" violations in the same category of harm as "terrorism" seems to be a gift to the intellectual property Industry without any grounding in reality, proportionality, or support from the community. The GNSO never recommended a policy where a person who makes an unauthorized copy of a music CD should be prohibited from registering a top-level domain. All of these proposed background checks should be deleted. Respectfully submitted, Robin Gross IP Justice IP JUSTICE Robin Gross, Executive Director 1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94117 USA p: +1-415-553-6261 f: +1-415-462-6451 w: http://www.ipjustice.org e: robin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx |