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ICANN Faces Multiple Challenges

Comes Out Against Porn Domain, Faces Continued Criticism on Other Issues
By Roger Strukhoff
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December 4, 2005 06:15 PM EST
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 9,839
The growing story of the day at the ICANN meeting in Vancouver was the organization's rejection of the .xxx domain name, proposed presumably to relieve pressure on the .com domain from the world's seemingly insatiable desire for what was quaintly called blue material in the good old days of underground smut.

Meanwhile, though, ICANN faces continued criticism from groups representing domain service providers other than VeriSign, to whom ICANN has proposed extending .dom domination for as long as the year 2012. One group, CFIT (www.cfit.info), announced the appointment of a new board member, Dr. John Berryhill, an experienced Philadelphia lawyer with 13 years' experience in patent matters and Internet-related issues. Berryhill joins a board that also comprises an attorney/CPA and a lobbyist from the U.S and a Canadian attorney.

The CFIT has filed suit against ICANN's proposal, which itself was the result of an attempt by ICANN to settle legal issues between itself and VeriSign.

ICANN also continues to defend itself against less formal allegations that its relationship with the U.S. government, in which it operates under a public/private agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce, unduly skew its decisions towards what the U.S. government wants. It is working on integrating non-English characters into its directional capabilities and non-Western character sets into its browsability characteristics.

ICANN received approval, albeit grudgingly by some corners of the world, to continue to administer global domain management, albeit with some new flexibility, at the recent U.N. WSIS meeting in Tunis. It recently published an online newsletter at its site that gave its view of the Tunis meeting.

The porn story may "sell newspapers," in the old parlance, but the issues of Internet domain control, in the U.S. and around the world, will continue to be the major issue facing the organization in coming years. This is indicative of a healthy Internet, it seems, even as it causes angst among the various players.

Published December 4, 2005 – Reads 9,839
Copyright © 2005 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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More Stories By Roger Strukhoff

Roger Strukhoff earned a BA with honors from Knox College, a Certificate in Technical Communications from UC-Berkeley, and an MBA from CSU-East Bay. His work recently won a "Stevie" American Business Award as best publication in its category. His volunteer work in international affairs merited a Letter of Commendation from the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. He splits most of his time between Silicon Valley and Southeast Asia, but can also be found at www.twitter.com/strukhoff

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ISSJ News Desk 12/04/05 07:21:51 PM EST

ICANN Faces Multiple Challenges. The ICANN meeting in Vancouver seems to be as lively as such an event can be, with porn in the picture during the most recent proceedings, as well as a continued challenge to its proposal to extend a .com monopoly to VeriSign.
SOA Web Services Journal News Desk 12/02/05 11:21:40 PM EST

The ICANN meeting in Vancouver seems to be as lively as such an event can be, with porn in the picture during the most recent proceedings, as well as a continued challenge to its proposal to extend a .com monopoly to VeriSign.