By Nick Patience
Many in the internet community are worried that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is ignoring the individual domain name holders in these crucial formative months. At the forthcoming board meeting and preceding public meeting, ICANN is due to recognize seven key constituency groups within its domain name supporting organization (DNSO). These groups will represent various interests within the industry, such as ISPs and domain name registrars, and they will elect representatives to a names council, which will be the DNSO’s steering committee, in effect. In turn, the DNSO will be entitled to three of the 19 seats on the full ICANN board, which will probably come into effect later this year.
But missing from the list of seven constituency groups proposed by ICANN was one representing individuals who hold domain names, which is obviously a fast-growing, but disparate group. The seven constituencies ICANN wants to see formed are: country-code registries; commercial and business entities; generic domain registries; ISPs; non-commercial domain holders; registrars; and trademark intellectual property and anti-counterfeiting interests. There is no limitation on the number of constituencies in which an entity can participate, but no more than one employee of each entity will be permitted to serve on the names council at any one time.
ICANN has said that it will look at a constituency representing individuals, even though it thinks most individuals can fit into one or more of the seven groups it has proposed (04/13/99). ICANN chairman Esther Dyson says the board wants to see the seven constituencies that it has outlined take shape before any others will be recognized, but says additional constituencies are possible. However, she adds that they will have to come up with a good reason for their existence and that the board will encourage them to speak to the other constituencies before trying to start up their own constituency.
But some in the community have already started to form themselves into groups purporting to specifically represent the interests of individual domain holders. They see the existence of such a group crucial if the policies of the DNSO – and by extension, ICANN itself – are not to be dominated by commercial and trademark- holding interests. The main group that has popped its head above the parapet is a movement started by Joop Teernstra of the New Zealand Internet Registry Ltd, which trades under the name Domainz, registering names in the .nz country code. He has been joined by various supporters and has proposed calling the individual domain name owners constituency the Cyberspace Association (http://www.democracy .org.nz/idno).
One of its supporters, Jay Fenello of Iperdome Inc says that many feel that the non-commercial domain name holders (NCDNH) constituency is in danger of being dominated by large groups such as the Internet Society (ISOC) and Educause, the non-profit group that represent the interests of US education institutions. Indeed, ISOC has launched an effort to form the NCDNH and Educause is listed as one of its supporters (04/13/99). An alternative proposal to establish the NCDNH has been submitted to ICANN by Michael Sondow of the International Congress of Independent Internet Users (ICIIU). Sondow has put out a call for support ahead of the Berlin meeting and has secured the backing of groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and REDI, a Spanish non-commercial internet law association. Sondow is also hopeful that Ralph Nader’s Consumer Project on Technology organization will get behind his efforts. (http://www.iciiu.org).
In addition, Fenello has set up a trade association-like body called the Personal Domain Name Holders Association (PDNHA http://www.pdnha.org) in an attempt to focus like-minded people in one place to present a standard interface in the world of internet politics, representing individual domain name holders. This is separate from
the efforts to establish a new constituency and says the PDNHA will slot into whichever constituency – or constituencies – look the most suitable. He has also put out a call for people to join him and says the exact legal structure for the organization will be finalized once the nature of the NCDNH is known, which will presumably become clear post-Berlin. http://www.icann.org
