Why ICANN failed
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Transcript of Why ICANN failed
Why ICANN failed
Milton Mueller
Associate Professor, Syracuse University School of Information Studies
Internet Governance
• Governance definition: – the exploitation of technical bottlenecks or access to
technical resources to regulate socio-economic conduct.– E.g., broadcasting
• ICANN is in the business of governance, not technical coordination– dispute resolution policy and famous marks– imposing a business model on domain name registration– WG discussions– Sovereignty claims to TLDs
ICANN’s Pre-history
• Internet Architecture Board (IAB) 1990; Internet Society (ISOC), 1992
• IANA’s attempt to privatize itself, 1995-6– 150 new gTLDs, $2000 + 2% of revenues
• The IAHC and the gTLD-MoU– ISOC-IANA, WIPO, ITU, new registrars
– shared registry model
– cartel-ized top-level domain space
– links domain name assignment to trademark protection
The White Paper and ICANN
• White Paper abdicates direct government action• Behind-the-scenes agreement with US Govt,
Europeans, IBM, WIPO, and ISOC-IANA on governance agenda – essentially the same as gTLD-MoU
• Initial Board gives complete control of ICANN to gTLD-MoU faction
Conclusions
The rhetoric of “industry self-regulation” was a mask that allowed a specific coalition of actors, led by the Internet Society, IBM, and a small number of European allies, to take over the administration of the Internet.
Administration concentrated exclusively on e-commerce and ignored implications of handing governance power to an unaccountable private entity
Conclusions
ICANN’s initial board was controlled by a single faction with a specific governance agenda that did not command consensus.
The determination of that faction to implement its agenda as quickly as possible fatally undermined the new corporation’s ability to: function as a vehicle for consensual “self-regulation” develop durable, trusted processes
Difficult questions for the future
• Can ICANN be fixed or should we start over?• How much globalization is appropriate?