By Nick Patience in Los Angeles
As expected, the newly enlarged board of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) approved – with just one abstention – the three way agreement between itself, Network Solutions Inc and the US Department of Commerce over the future management of the domain name and numbering system. Changes had been made to the agreements, most notably to assuage the registrar companies, which had objected to provisions that they felt gave NSI, the dominant player in the market, an unfair advantage.
ICANN chairman Mike Roberts described the passing of the resolution as a once in a generation kind of thing, and NSI chairman Mike Daniels, addressing the board immediately following the vote, called it a seminal moment. The original agreements were struck on September 28, and were open to comment until yesterday. The actual documents will be signed next week in Washington DC.
Looking forward, the board also approved resolutions to use the money it has been promised from the Markle Foundation, to build a mechanism for establishing a membership, which will indirectly elect half of the boards’ total 18 members.
The agreements with NSI mean that ICANN will now have sufficient funds for the first time in its year-long existence, as, among other things, NSI has agreed to pay an advance on fees it now has to pay ICANN as both a registrar and the sole registry for names ending in .com/net/org. ICANN chairman Esther Dyson rounded off what has been almost a year of at times heated arguments and discussion with a welcome to the community olive branch to the company whose monopoly ICANN was ostensibly set up to break.
