U.S. Government Finally Lets ICANN Go

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Mark Lim, director and head of intellectual property, media and entertainment department at Singapore law firm, Tan Peng Chin, said it is good, in principle, that the ICANN is no longer controlled by any one government since its activities are international and affect all countries.

"But, having said that, if you have major decisions to be made in future, it's going to be interesting to see how the conflicting interests can be reconciled, and whether the ICANN can move forward as quickly as it should," Lim told ZDNet Asia in a phone interview.

"Funding will be an issue as well because now, there's no one person in charge. It creates issues," he said.

He also noted that while accountability would be heightened because the voices of more stakeholders would now be heard, at the same time, due to the divergence of interests, he questioned how decisions will be reached. "I'm sure though that the board will exercise some control in such circumstances," he said.

According to Levins, this will not spell an end to ties with the U.S. government. "We want to be accountable to everyone, including the U.S., and to have a continuing relationship with the U.S. government. We don't want to sever that relationship," he said, noting that this addresses concerns among some American politicians who had urged for the ICANN to remain under U.S. custodianship to "ensure ongoing stability and security".

The U.S. also has a seat on the organization's Governmental Advisory Committee.

Before today's turn of events, Professor Ang Peng Hwa, director of Singapore Internet Research Centre at Nanyang Technological University, had anticipated the JPA to be renewed. In an e-mail interview with ZDNet Asia, Ang said the U.S. government would likely argue that the JPA would be good for cybersecurity.

He noted that there are issues that would need to be resolved if the ICANN is internationalized.

"If governments are involved, how can we as users be assured that the decisions are indeed based on technical and wider social and economic benefits, and not because they are the most politically expedient," he questioned.

When asked, Levins said the organization's review process looks closely at balancing economic and social benefits, as well as the cost of implementing certain proposals.

"We're committing to do those [review and analysis] for every major decision the ICANN takes," he said. "What will keep us honest of that is the participation of world governments, community at large through public comments, our review teams, and so on."

A report released last week by the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) called for the U.S. government to run a full-scale audit of the ICANN's structure, governance and oversight mechanism.

Calling the ICANN "broken", CADNA President Josh Bourne highlighted ten issues that needed to be addressed, including the lack of transparency and internal accountability mechanisms to ensure the organization is operating honestly.

Bryan Tan, a Singapore-based lawyer who specializes in IT, said the CADNA report carried fair comments for the ICANN "in the spirit that they can be looked into and rectified".

However, he noted that the ICANN is still a relatively young entity. "It has not been around for that long and like any organization, especially one so diverse but with so much responsibility and operating in a changing environment that no one has operated before—they need to be given time and constructive feedback," said Tan, who runs his own practice, Keystone Law.

Upon learning of the ICANN announcement, Ang expressed surprise and said the move bodes well for the Obama administration, which has demonstrated its willingness to let go a legacy left behind by the Bush administration, that had behaved as if the ICANN equates to the United States.

"It gives the moral high ground to the U.S., which could not preach democracy if it did not act democratically in an area that the world had said should be done democratically," he said. "Had status quo been maintained, it would have been bizarre for China to tell the U.S. to be more democratic."

Provided by ZDNet Asia—Where Technology Means Business

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