Internet Pioneer Paul Vixie says ICANN’s job is to serve the public, not caving in to demands from the companies

Dr Paul Vixie, a pioneer of the internet’s domain name system (DNS), has lashed out at the creation of hundreds of new top-level domains, ranging from .dog to .horse, and .cool to .porn, labelling them a money grab and a mistake. Vixie was speaking at the Ruxcon information security conference in Melbourne on Sunday about …

Senators Thune, Schatz warn ICANN Board not to stymie accountability demands as it jeopardizes IANA transition

US Senators Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and colleague Brian Schatz [D-HI] have once again written to the ICANN Board concerning interference of the accountability steps and proposals to the IANA transition as it would jeopardizes IANA transition. The ICANN Board has twice rejected proposals that would improve board accountability and the ability of the multistakholder …

DCA Trust Slams AUC Commissioner of Infrastructure’s interference letter to ICANN Geographic Panel

The CEO of DCA Trust has written a cautionary letter to the ICANN following an unsolicited letter by the Africa Union Commissioner of Infrastructure, Elham Ibrahim to the independent geographic names evaluation panel on 29th August 2015 following the July 2015 ruling where DCA Trust successfully fought and won against ICANN for the .africa handling. …

Bekele fires back at Elham’s letter of intervention to ICANN Geo-Panel

DCA Trust has fired back in a detailed response to the letter by AUC Commissioner AU Commissioner, Dr. Elham Ibrahim insisting that it “amounts to inappropriate interference designed to undermine the objectivity and independence of the GNP.” Bekele has also quoted several parts of the applicant guide book which gives restrictions to applicants on how …

IANA Transition Standoff: ICANN Board neither supports the Single Member Model nor its alternative, the Designator model

The ICANN Boards Penchant for maintaining its status quo on power has triggered another multistakeholder storm after rejecting the second option of the Designator model.This is after rejecting the proposed Single Member Model (SMM or CMSM). In an email to the CCWG-Accountability mail list on Monday evening, October 5, 2015, just hours before a scheduled …

US Senators Letter Questions GAO on whether Obama Administration has Power to allow IANA Transition

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), along with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting an affirmative determination of whether the Obama …

An unsupervised Post IANA-ICANN will be pressured by power hungry governments warns Internet Expert

Sophia Bekele Internet expert and previous ICANN policy adviser,   has warned in her article that if, as has been argued by some other writers, governments want more power within the ICANN ecosystem, an unsupervised PTI-ICANN will also be pressured by various governments. Read the article below on The Hill: November 2016 elections will determine …

Strickling: No consensus yet on tools for enhancing ICANN accountability says NTIA

The Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling has given a new update on the ongoing proposals to prepare the IANA transition plan where the NTIA notes that comments have revealed that stakeholders have not reached consensus on all the specific tools that have been proposed to enhance the accountability of …