On behalf of the interests of the not-for-profit community and
civil society constituencies I would like some clarity, preferably
from those who created the terms of reference for the newly
created ICANN positions of Chief Contract Compliance Officer and
Consumer Safeguards Director.
The ICANN announcement indicates that they will oversee Contract
Compliance and Safeguards, as well as ICANN’s public Interest
Commitments and that they will work with others to help safeguard
registrants and the global Internet community in ways may go
beyond pure contractual enforcement. The position of Consumer
Safeguards Director will focus specifically on implementation of
those ICANN contract safeguards directed toward protecting
consumers, all of this with a broader compliance vision intended
to serve ICANN’s mission of providing public benefit.
There are two areas where NPOC would like clarity.
- The first is with regard to the scope and meaning of the
terms “consumers” and “global Internet community”. ICANN has
traditionally taken consumers to mean registrants of the
Internet’s registry and registrar services and focused on
contractual enforcement. Does efforts to help safeguard the
global Internet community include the customers of registrants
and others within the global Internet community at large, or
does it have a more circumscribed meaning?
- Second, can there be some greater initial clarity with
regard to the others with whom ICANN will be working, and what
are the ways that may go beyond pure contractual enforcement?
Sam Lanfranco, Chair,
NPOC Policy Committee