[bc-gnso] US says it will not block the new gTLD program

[Phil Corwin <psc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Further elaboration of NTIA's current stance vis-à-vis ICANN and new gTLDs...

http://domainincite.com/us-says-it-will-not-block-the-new-gtld-program/

US says it will not block the new gTLD 
program<http://domainincite.com/us-says-it-will-not-block-the-new-gtld-program/>
Kevin Murphy<http://domainincite.com/about>, December 9, 2011, 17:06:18 (UTC), 
Domain Policy<http://domainincite.com/category/domain-policy/>
NTIA boss Larry Strickling has come out in support of ICANN and its new 
top-level domains program, warning that its opponents "provide ammunition" to 
authoritarian regimes.
Speaking in Washington DC yesterday, Strickling warned that organizations 
fighting to put a stop to the new gTLD program risk provoking a UN takeover of 
the internet.
In a strongly worded defense of the six-year-old ICANN multistakeholder process 
that created the program, he said:
we are now seeing parties that did not like the outcome of that 
multistakeholder process trying to collaterally attack the outcome and seek 
unilateral action by the U.S. government to overturn or delay the product of a 
six-year multistakeholder process that engaged folks from all over the world.
The multistakeholder process does not guarantee that everyone will be satisfied 
with the outcome. But it is critical to preserving the model of Internet 
governance that has been so successful to date that all parties respect and 
work through the process and accept the outcome once a decision is reached.
When parties ask us to overturn the outcomes of these processes, no matter how 
well-intentioned the request, they are providing "ammunition" to other 
countries who attempt to justify their unilateral actions to deny their 
citizens the free flow of information on the Internet.
This we will not do. There is too much at stake here.
Strickling is assistant secretary at the National Telecommunications and 
Information Administration, which oversees the US government's relationship 
with ICANN and IANA.
He's made similar remarks in support of the multistakeholder model in the past, 
but never quite as firmly or directly aimed at opponents of the new gTLD 
expansion.
While he was diplomatic enough not to single out any one group, he was pretty 
clearly referring to the recently formed Coalition for Responsible Internet 
Domain Oversight.
CRIDO was 
formed<http://domainincite.com/massive-group-forms-to-kill-off-new-gtlds/> by 
the Association of National Advertisers to fight new gTLDs. Yesterday, it had 
its day on Capitol Hill, but failed to convince 
Senators<http://domainincite.com/notes-from-the-senate-new-gtlds-hearing/> that 
the program should be stopped.
But Strickling did sound a note of caution about new gTLDs, saying that he 
agreed with Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who expressed concern about possible negative 
impacts of the expansion:
We agree with the Chairman's concerns over how this program will be implemented 
and its potential negative effect if not implemented properly. We will closely 
monitor the execution of the program and are committed to working with 
stakeholders, including U.S. industry, to mitigate any unintended consequences.
But the minutiae of the Applicant Guidebook was not Strickling's focus. 
Instead, it was the wider political picture.
The threat of an International Telecommunications Union takeover of the 
internet's policy-making functions has plagued ICANN for almost as long as it 
has existed.
Strickling noted that the ITU's World Conference on International 
Telecommunications is coming up one year from now, and that some nations will 
attempt to usurp ICANN.
Some nations appear to prefer an Internet managed and controlled by 
nation-states.
...
We expect that some states will attempt to rewrite the regulation in a manner 
that would exclude the contributions of multistakeholder organizations and 
instead provide for heavy-handed governmental control of the Internet.
For the ANA and CRIDO, Strickling's 
remarks<http://www.ntia.doc.gov/speechtestimony/2011/remarks-assistant-secretary-strickling-practicing-law-institutes-29th-annual-te>
 are a huge setback.
The ANA has previously said that it planned to use all three branches of the US 
political system - lobbying Congress and the NTIA, or taking ICANN to court - 
to achieve its ends.
The Senate clearly wasn't interested yesterday and the NTIA has now confirmed 
that it's on ICANN's side.
That leaves only one option.


Philip S. Corwin, Founding Principal
Virtualaw LLC
1155 F Street, NW
Suite 1050
Washington, DC 20004
202-559-8597/Direct
202-559-8750/Fax
202-255-6172/cell

"Luck is the residue of design" -- Branch Rickey