IAB IANA Evolution Program commment on CWG Stewardship Draft Proposal

[Russ Housley <housley@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To the ICANN CWG-Stewardship and the IAB:

The IAB creates and manages programs for topics that require a long-term 
perspective and that may require insights and expertise from people not 
necessarily appointed to the IAB.  The IAB IANA Evolution program is one such 
program.  Any output of an IAB program does not necessarily reflect the views 
of the IAB.  Nor does it reflect IETF consensus.

The IAB IANA Evolution has some some comments about the ICANN CWG-Stewardship 
second draft proposal, available at 
https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/cwg-stewardship-draft-proposal-with-annexes-22apr15-en.pdf.
  Please find comments from the program below.  Note that the IAB is copied on 
this note so that it is aware of our correspondence.

We observe that the CWG-Stewardship continues to work and expects to complete 
its proposal in June.  We congratulate the CWG-Stewardship for the considerable 
work it has accomplished in a short time.

The proposal includes a plan to create a "Post-Transition IANA" or PTI.  The 
PTI is to be a separate legal entity, subsidiary to ICANN (an "affiliate").  
The precise details of organization, control, and governance are not entirely 
laid out in the proposal, but we believe it is likely to be either a 
public-benefit corporation or an LLC, under a board with at least a majority 
appointed by the ICANN board.

The IETF community prepared a plan in advance of the proposal to create PTI, 
and IETF consensus was to continue the current arrangement with ICANN.  As a 
result, we believe that the IETF's agreements for the protocol parameters IANA 
function will continue to be with ICANN.  If ICANN chooses to create internal 
structures (such as the PTI) for the delivery of that service, we do not 
believe that entails changing the IETF's agreements.  We expect legal analysis 
by the IETF will be required as the details emerge of how the PTI is to be 
constituted and funded, and that analysis could change our evaluation of what 
arrangements are needed.

The proposal also contains some scenarios in which the IAB might be invited to 
participate either directly or via liaison in additional ICANN-related 
activities.  We believe the IAB will need to evaluate those possibilities 
carefully in the future, when all the details are available.  However, 
arrangements for the protocol parameters part of IANA are not dependent on such 
participation.

We observe that the proposal is in some ways dependent on decisions by the 
ICANN CCWG-Accountability, and we have not completed our evaluation of current 
CCWG-Accountability proposals.

Best regards,
    Russ Housley
    IAB IANA Evolution program chair