A special committee of the Board of Directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) issued a paper revising prior proposals for self-reform, and outlining why ICANN should continue to exist. On June 20, 2002, the Committee on ICANN Evolution and Reform, led by ICANN Vice Chair Alejandro Pisanty, issued a paper called a "blueprint for reform" that responded to critics’ calls for reform or termination of ICANN and set forth a proposal for the composition and selection of its Board of Directors that removed or glossed over the more controversial aspects of prior proposals by the Committee and by ICANN’s President, M. Stuart Lynn.
Responding to recent criticism from Congress that it had evolved into a supra-national regulatory body without appropriate limits or due process, the June 20 paper recommends restricting ICANN’s policy-making to areas that are "reasonably related" to its technical mission of running the Internet address system, and not regulate other matters such as Internet content. On the controversial question of whether some number of ICANN Board Members should be elected directly by Internet users worldwide, the paper backs off the February proposal of ICANN’s President to scrap directly elected at-large Board positions.
One of the current at-large Board Members, frequent critic Karl Auerach, said "The document is completely out of touch with reality." He described ICANN in its current form as a "demonstrated failure." "I think it sets a clear direction," ICANN President Stuart Lynn said of the paper. "It doesn't answer all the questions, but it deals with major issues (facing ICANN)." The paper was published just days before ICANN was scheduled to meet in Bucharest, Romania, where reform was on the agenda.
Why This Matters: The paper represents the position the ICANN Board wished to take into its meeting in Bucharest: not as controversial as prior proposals, and diplomatically short on sticky details. Just as importantly, it attempted to reflect a new more limited approach called for by influential members of the U.S. Congress, who have the influence to pull the plug on ICANN if it does not trim its sails a bit.
This article originally appeared in ADLAW By Request, a publication of Hall Dickler Kent Goldstein & Wood LLP.
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