Jon Weinberg made a comment to the public discussion list for the PDP
(see below, please).
I find it a very good summary of the issue and the dangers of possible
solutions.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2003 00:23:11 -0500
From: Jonathan Weinberg <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [tor-reg] ICANN and changes in the architecture or operation of a
    gTLD  registry

         I've written an academic paper, called *Site Finder and Internet
Governance*, relating to this PDP.  Here's an excerpt:

>The lesson of Site Finder is that there needs to be an effective
>institutional mechanism for protecting the domain name space
>infrastructure from unilateral change that bypasses the protections and
>consensus mechanisms of the traditional Internet standards process.  The
>existing domain-name architecture and standards process are subject to
>substantial pressure from an aggressively for-profit VeriSign.  Even a
>flawed ICANN may be better suited than any other existing institution to
>protect against that danger.  Yet we should endorse ICANN regulatory
>authority only with extreme caution, and the same mechanisms should not
>apply to everyone.  ICANN oversight should certainly not apply beyond the
>for-profit unsponsored registries.  Even within this group, it may be that
>the rules should be different for "dominant" and "non-dominant" players --
>perhaps, for VeriSign and all others.


The full paper is available at
<http://www.law.wayne.edu/weinberg/sitefinder.new.PDF>.


Jon

Jonathan Weinberg
Professor of Law, Wayne State University
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