Re jurisdiction under US control

["Gary Marquart" <gary@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gentlemen:

This may not be addressed to the appropriate component of ICANN; if that be
the case, I would appreciate the recipient forwarding this to the correct
office.

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I have always maintained, and continue to maintain, that transferring
control of ICANN to any other jurisdiction, including and especially the
United Nations, would be a disaster.

At the same time, the US Government is using its law enforcement power to
interfere with the supposedly international character of your function.

Specifically, as demonstrated in the very recent seizing of several online
poker sites' domains, it is using its national authority to interfere with
the Web's international operation.  If you cede the right to seize domains
to USA agencies merely on a claim -- not conviction -- of there being used
in an illegal activity,  and yet claim to be international, you should also,
then, accede to demands from, say, Iraq to transfer to that nation domains
critical of Islam  -- which is illegal in that jurisdiction.

No government should have the right to seize domains without trial and
conviction.  Indeed, even then:  The extreme but realistic example of Iran
trying and finding guilty the operators of a site insulting the Prophet
would be justification for shutting those sites down as well.

Is this the future you want for the Web?

I fear that that sort of knuckling under to US authorities is going to open
up the issue of who, ultimately, is to have legal authority over ICANN.  If
that should no longer be the USA, chaos will follow and the WWW will be
destroyed.

Any future contract for the operation of ICANN must make it clear that ICANN
is not, and will not act as an arm of, any national law enforcement agency.
Use of your records to track down those who break laws is, of course, to be
made available to the authorities; cooperation in the seizing of their
domain names must be explicitly forbidden in any contract.

(Dr.) R. Gary Marquart
Systems Architect