<nettime> Yokohama Statement on Civil Society and ICANN

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Draft

               Yokohama Statement
                       on
         Civil Society and ICANN Elections

                   27 June 2000


            Internet Democracy Project
         http://www.internetdemocracy.net
      http://www.cpsr.org/internetdemocracy


This draft document articulates a civil society perspective on the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and
identifies issues for the upcoming At Large elections.

Civil society is a third sector of society alongside the state and the
market. Civil society supports freedom of association, freedom of
expression, participatory democracy, and respect for diversity.  A
vigorous civil society is also an important limit on the power of
governments and on the power of the commercial sector.

We encourage individuals and organizations to discuss this statement
internally and with others and to suggest improvements. This statement
will be further developed at the:

       Civil Society Forum
       Yokohama, Japan (ICANN Meeting)
       Thursday, 13 July 2000, 9:00-12:00

For more information see web sites above.  Comments can also be submitted
to Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) at
<<hklein@cpsr.org> .


Initial signatories (individuals):

Karl Auerbach
   Individual Domain Name Holders Constituency (USA)
Chris Bailey
   Internet Rights Campaign
   Association for Progressive Communications (APC) (UK)
Tracy Cohen
   LINK/Wits University (South Africa)
Marc Holitscher
   Unit for Internet Studies (Switzerland)
Tomoya Inyaku
   JCA-NET (Japan)
Hans Klein
   Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) (USA)
Norbert Klein
   Open Forum of Cambodia (Cambodia)
Veni Markovski
   Internet Society - Bulgaria (Bulgaria)
   ICANN Membership Implementation Task Force Chair for East Europe
Milton Mueller
   Syracuse University (USA)
Toshimaru Ogura
   Net-workers against Surveillance Task-force (NaST) (Japan)
Nii Quaynor
  Network Computer Systems (NCS) (Ghana)
Roberto Roggiero
   INTERCOM - Ecuanex (Ecuador)
Marc Rotenberg
   Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) (USA)
Barry Steinhardt
   American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (USA)
Shinji Yamane
   Japan Chapter preparatory committee (Japan)
   Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR)


              Yokohama Statement
                       on
         Civil Society and ICANN Elections


Guiding Values

1. ICANN must be representative.
2. ICANN must be transparent.
3. ICANN must use bottom-up processes.
4. Intellectual property rights are not privileged over other rights.
5. ICANN must limit itself to technical policy-making.
6. The domain name space is not an exclusively public resource.
7. Artificial scarcity and centralization should be avoided.
8. ICANN must respect privacy.
9. Costs should be minimal and equitable.


Issues in the ICANN Elections

1. ICANN must be representative.

ICANN currently suffers from a democracy deficit. Since its creation in
1998 and continuing to the present, the commercial sector has had
disproportionate representation on the Board of Directors.  The democracy
deficit will continue at least until all At Large Board seats are filled
by elected representatives.

* All At-Large Board seats should be filled by election as quickly as
possible.

* Any policies passed by a Board that is not fully representative should
be subject to an annual vote of reauthorization ("sunset provision").

* ICANN should embrace the membership provisions of its bylaws. Election
procedures should be made more open, barriers to candidacy reduced, and
full rights of membership should be recognized. In particular, provisions
that attempt to weaken the legal rights of members should be removed from
the by-laws.

* Internet users in many developing countries have Email but not web
access. ICANN membership should be possible (and easy) with just an Email
connection.

* The Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO) should restructure its
constituencies to reduce the disproportionate representation given to
business and intellectual property interests.

* The DNSO should recognize new constituencies, including an Individual
Domain Name Holders constituency, a developing countries constituency,
and a small business constituency.



2. ICANN must be transparent.

Information-sharing should be maximized before, during, and after all
ICANN decisions.

* ICANN should make available records of the process and content of all
decisions, except those pertaining to personnel or to the negotiation of
contracts.

* The cash flow structure of ICANN should be made public. A strict lineal
path should be established between expense request, authorization,
issuance of purchase order, receipt of invoice, delivery, and payment.

* ICANN should publish a report with each of its decisions that explains
how the action being taken fits within ICANN's scope and how the decision
was created by an open and transparent process based on the consent of a
majority of ICANN participants.



3. ICANN must use bottom-up processes.

ICANN is in danger of becoming an organization whose policies and
practices are determined by its staff. ICANN needs to rededicate itself
to its original conception as a decentralized, bottom-up standards making
organization.

* ICANN staff must show more respect for procedural safeguards and checks
and balances.

* The unelected Board seat reserved for ICANN's President should be
eliminated.  The entire Board should be democratically elected.

* ICANN should not select a new President until after the first round of
At Large elections.  Any candidate for the position of ICANN President
should not accept an offer until after the At Large elections.

* No person or entity that played an active role in the creation of ICANN
should obtain any benefit from ICANN or be a party to any contract with
ICANN until 24 months have elapsed after that role has ceased (no
"revolving door" of personnel transfers between ICANN and external
partners.)

* No person who has been member of the board or has held an executive
office under ICANN should obtain any benefit from ICANN or be a party to
any contract with ICANN until 24 months have elapsed after that role has
ceased.


4. Intellectual property rights are not privileged over other
rights.

The European Convention on Human Rights states, "Everyone has the right
to freedom of expression" (Article 10). ICANN should not compromise the
right of expression in order to protect the right of property.

* DNS administration should not be leveraged to expand the scope of
intellectual property rights (IPR).  Civil law has been an adequate
vehicle for regulating property. Changes in the scope and nature of
international IPR protection should be made through national legislatures
and international treaties.

* Should DNS policy unavoidably intersect other policy areas, ICANN
should be equally mindful of rights, laws, and norms protecting free
expression, privacy, the public domain, and noncommercial use.

* The Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) passed in 1999 without the
representation or consent of Internet users should be subject to review
and vote of reauthorization.

* Intellectual property rights are best protected by establishing special
zones in the domain name space for trademark (e.g. ".trademark").



5. ICANN must limit itself to technical policy-making.

The power over Internet users inherent in DNS administration should not
be used to make public policy.

* IP address management and DNS root server management need not be
combined in the same organization. There are strong political,
organizational, and technical reasons to separate address management from
DNS policy making.

* ICANN must not be used as an instrument to promote policies relating to
conduct or content on the Internet.  Its by-laws should explicitly
recognize limitations on its powers in order to guard against expansion
of mission ("mission creep").


6. The domain name space is not an exclusively public resource.

The assertion that "the [domain] name space is a public resource" (by
ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee) provides a basis for excessive
state control. Likewise, the "natural monopoly" model of country code TLD
(ccTLD) registries creates an opportunity for excessive control.

* The domain name space is not an exclusively public resource. Assertions
of public control over zones in the domain name space need explicit
justification.

* Public resources in the domain name space need not be under the control
of national governments.

* Multiple, parallel, and possibly overlapping TLDs registries for
supra-national, national, sub-national, regional, cultural, linguistic,
and other social and political groupings should not be excluded from the
root. This is the basis of a vibrant civil society.


7. Artificial scarcity and centralization should be avoided.

Control points and artificial scarcity in DNS create barriers to Internet
access and foster regulation of users.

* The DNS root is a single point of failure on the Internet that
threatens operational stability.

* The single DNS root is a control point. ICANN should support the
evolutionary development of the DNS away from a centralized
architecture.

* ICANN should encourage the interconnection of the DNS with alternate
name spaces.

* Scarcity in domain names creates opportunities for control. Expansion
of the domain name space through the creation of new TLD registries
should be ICANN's highest priority.

* Expansion of the Internet domain name space should be unconstrained
(except for technical constraints -- to the extent that such constraints
exist.) Expansion through decentralization of the root and growth in top
level domains is especially desirable.

* The use of domain names as a marketing device to index content creates
excessive value in domain names and creates disincentives to innovation.
The technical evolution of DNS should not be unduly inhibited by its use
as a marketing technology by commercial users.


8. ICANN must respect privacy.

* ICANN's policies and internal procedures should adhere to Fair
Information Practices, based on the OECD Privacy Guidelines.

* ICANN's policies for domain name and address management should not
discourage the adoption of genuine privacy enhancing techniques or
undermine the right of anonymity.


9. Costs should be minimal and equitable.

Similar services delivered in different parts of the world can have
different value.  Likewise, users' ability to pay can vary
dramatically.

* ICANN's costs should be distributed in a manner that corresponds to the
costs caused by different users.

* Many costs have arisen from the high priority given by ICANN's Board to
address the concerns of commercial Internet users.  Costs assessed to
those users should reflect this.

* ICANN should at all times strive to minimize costs (e.g. rather than
holding Board meetings in business class facilities, ICANN should use
non-profit quality facilities.)

* ICANN should allow an outside audit of expenses, business practices,
cost controls, and accounting methods.  The standard of evaluation should
be that of public-benefit non-profit entities rather than those of
for-profit corporations.


####

For more information see:
	http://www.internetdemocracy.net
	http://www.cpsr.org/internetdemocracy

====================================================
   Hans K. Klein
   hans.klein@pubpolicy.gatech.edu
   http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~hk28/


   Chair, Computer Professionals
        for Social Responsibility (CPSR)
        http://www.cpsr.org

   Assistant Professor of Public Policy
        Georgia Institute of Technology
        http://www.spp.gatech.edu
====================================================

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