Warren’ s Washingtion Internet DailyDOMAIN NAMES: Australian barrister
presses
ICANN to recognize
alternate root... (P. 5)
[This article also reproduced at
http://www.site.humanrights/media.html
and also, using ICANN root, at http://www.humanrights.com.au/dhr/media.html]
Domain
Names
Australian barrister Len Lindon, who has been waging a solitary campaign
against
alleged anticompetitive activities by ICANN and the .au Domain
Administration
(auDA), Thurs. advised ICANN CEO Stuart Lynn, Vp-Gen. Counsel
Louis Touton and
Chief Policy Officer Andrew McLaughlin that he expected the
Internet body to recognize
the “Human Rights Root Service” and to resolve
.humanrights on the ICANN root.
In his letter, posted online the day before
the opening of the ICANN meeting in
Stockholm, Lindon said ICANN, the
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
(ACCC) and Australia’s Minister
for Communications were “well aware” of allegations
that ICANN was breaching
the Australian Trade Prac-tices Act by limiting competition
in the domain
space. “The most recent proof of ICANN’s intent to destroy non-ICANN
root
services and [top-level domains (TLDs)] was published by the ICANN President
on
Tuesday 28 May 2001,” Lindon wrote. That’s the day Lynn posted a White
Paper that
has infuriated alternate root proponents and prompted a response
from upstart
registry New.net outlining a proposal to introduce
“market-based principles into
domain name governance.” While Lindon’s
.humanrights site is “prepared to mutually
recognize ICANN TLDs and the
ICANN Root Service for the purpose of Internet Addressing,”
he said, it
can’t have any other connection to ICANN. “The corrupt processes and
decisions
of ICANN have been analysed [sic] at length,” Lindon said. “No
wonder Europeans
call ICANN ‘the American Joke!’” Last Nov., Lindon asked
the ACCC to investigate
claims that ICANN and auDA were anticompetitive. At
the ICANN meeting in March
in Melbourne, Lindon sought an injunction against
both bodies, a request that
was denied by a justice of Australia’s federal
court. The ACCC earlier had indicated
that it might look into Lindon’s
allegations. However, an e-mail seeking comment
hadn’t been answered by our
deadline. Wran-gling over the need for alternate roots
has become so heated
that the topic been put on the agenda for ICANN’s public
forum June 3. — DS
c. Warren’ s Washingtion Internet Daily
FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2001
page
5, Vol 2, No 106
http://www.warren-news.com/