PAB Re: The "Statement of Principles"

[Bob Helfant <bhelfant@globecomm.com>]

I find the part about IANA currently having control over all TLDs a little
out of line.  I have signed the orginal MoU and didn't have to agree to
that statement.  It is clearly not true, or CORE would have its 7 TLDs in
the root by now.  Are you really asking people to sign this or are you
looking for concencus and/or suggestions to release this statement as an
MoU lite?

Bob Helfant
GlobeComm, Inc.

At 09:23 AM 6/1/98 -0700, Kent Crispin wrote:
>To gtld-discuss:
>
>While you are twiddling your thumbs waiting for the white paper, 
>here's something to think about:
>
>Appended is a draft "Statement of Principles".  It is intended that a 
>signature on this document would be sufficient to become a member of 
>PAB.  Note that signatures must be from bona fide entities.
>
>Also note that explicitly, a signature does not legally bind a
>signatory to anything.  Thus, membership is essentially open --
>instead of charging $35/year or something like that, the basic
>membership requirement is being a bona fide entity with sufficient
>interest to go to the trouble of submitting a signature.
>
>
>
>   STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES CONCERNING GENERIC TOP LEVEL DOMAINS
>
>This declaration represents an agreement among the undersigned on a
>broad statement of principles that should govern 1) the administration
>of the global domain name system (DNS) of the Internet, and 2) the set
>of generic top level domains (gTLDs).
>
>This statement is not intended to and shall not impose legal
>obligations on those who sign. 
>
>  I.  The administration of the DNS is now under the control of the
>  Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), a private organization
>  that derives its authority from its standing in the Internet
>  community, and by charter from the Internet Architecture Board, the
>  fundamental standards body of the Internet. 
>
>  II.  IANA currently has control over all TLDs in the global DNS,
>  including the ISO 3166 Country Code TLDs (ccTLDs), the specialized
>  TLDs (sTLDs), and the generic TLDs (gTLDs).  ccTLD registries are
>  delegated by IANA to appropriate political authorities; sTLDs are
>  governed by charters approved by IANA, and gTLDs are governed by
>  a tradition of fair use codified in RFCs and IANA policies.
>
>  III.  Administration of the DNS should remain under the control of a
>  private organization, either IANA or some organization derived from
>  IANA, in the legal form of a corporation or otherwise.  This
>  organization should operate in the public interest, for the benefit
>  of the Internet, not for profit; and must be responsive to public
>  policy concerns. 
>
>  IV.  Administration of the DNS should not at any time be under the
>  control of any national government. 
>
>  V.  Each gTLD registry shall be subject to the following policies or
>  principles, enforced ultimately by IANA, or its successor:
>
>    (a) IANA, or its successor, shall determine when and whether to
>    create new gTLDs including specification of the alphanumeric
>    strings, the timing of introduction of new gTLDs, and the number of
>    gTLDs, through an open, unbiased, public procedure.
>
>    (b) The data in each registry shall be freely available to the
>    public, subject only to restrictions relating to privacy.
>
>    (c) gTLD registries shall operate in the public interest on a cost
>    recovery basis and not for profit, under the ultimate supervision
>    of IANA (or its successor).
>
>    (d) Access for registration of second level domains in all gTLD
>    registries shall be equally available to all qualified registrars
>    on a non-discriminatory basis.  The qualifications for registrars
>    will be under the control of IANA (or its successor).
>
>    (e) IANA (or its successor) will establish a uniform procedure for
>    resolving disputes involving trademarks and other intellectual
>    property issues concerning domain names.  This procedure will
>    offer an efficient and inexpensive means of dispute resolution
>    without supplanting or interfering with the jurisdiction of
>    national courts or the rights of Internet users to have resort to
>    the courts. 
>
>    (f) Registration services for second level domain names in the
>    gTLDs should be globally distributed, and, except in exceptional
>    circumstances, should be shared among all registrars that meet
>    appropriate technical qualifications. 
>
>
>
>
>-- 
>Kent Crispin, PAB Chair			"No reason to get excited",
>kent@songbird.com			the thief he kindly spoke...
>PGP fingerprint:   B1 8B 72 ED 55 21 5E 44  61 F4 58 0F 72 10 65 55
>http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html
>