Kieren McCarthy: This is what is happening to Iraq's Internet domain.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the Verisign v. ICANN litigation, the GNSO process on new registry services, and related issues about innovation in the DNS and IP address arenas. Here are two things I believe:

1. ICANN should never exercise its regulatory authority over registries and registrars in such a way that stifles or slows innovation.  To the contrary, with minimal, light-handed oversight, ICANN should create an environment in which registries and registrars are encouraged to develop new services and reach new service levels.

2. Private innovation should never come at the expense of the public interest.  (And the corollary to No. 2:  ICANN has an important role to play in ensuring that the public interest is served for matters within its purview.) 

The fact that I don't view these as mutually exclusive speaks either to my optimism or my hopeless naivete. Can these two points be reconciled?

The GNSO is thinking about these same issues. I don't think this chart gets the balance right. New services ought to roll out from the service provider, not churn through such a complex flow chart.  At the same time, I have no hesitance in saying that Verisign should have announced what it was planning to do with Sitefinder in sufficient advance of the launch for service providers and others relying on the status quo to adapt. Had ICANN created a lighter regulatory environment, however, Verisign might not have felt the need to roll out the new service with no advance warning.

I suppose this is the start of a public comment I'll submit for the "new registry services" process, but it's not yet fully developed. More later.

Cool! Apple - Mac OS X - Tiger Preview - Safari RSS

The ICANN Board will hold its next meeting on Tuesday, June 29, 2004 via a closed, non-public teleconference.  The posted agenda is as follows:

• Procedure for Subsequent .net Registry Agreement
• Change of deletion language in the .org Agreement
• Provisional Redelegation of .ly
• Redelegation of .cd
• Finance Committee Recommendation regarding temporary budget
• Engagement of Auditors
• Approval of Directors Travel Expenses
• Litigation Update
• Update on SSAC Wildcard Report
• Other business

I'd be interested in seeing that Finance Committee recommendation on the "temporary budget." That's on the web site somewhere, isn't it?

Asia Pacific Media Network: "When an interim government takes over from the US-led occupation next week, Iraq will regain its place among the world's sovereign nations -- except on the internet. More than 240 places have their own two-letter internet country codes, from .ac for Ascension Island to .zw for Zimbabwe. There's even .ps for the Palestinian territories. But the domain assigned to Iraq, .iq, is stuck in a strange bureaucratic limbo -- the company that had administered it is under US criminal indictment -- and could remain there for months."

From today's Los Angeles Daily Journal, the local legal newspaper, comes news that a federal district judge awarded attorney's fees of $1,800,000 to artist Tom Forsythe in the Barbie parody case. In a June 24th decision in Mattel Inc. v. Walking Mountain Productions, U.S. District Judge Ronald Lew wrote that Mattel had filed an "objectively unreasonable copyright claim against an individual artist."   

William F. Adkinson, Jr., senior policy counsel for the Progress & Freedom Foundation, via Free2Innovate.net: "The [.Net registry selection] criteria should strongly favor the incumbent operator where the incumbent has performed well, and disadvantage the incumbent where he has not. Past operation of the registry in question is uniquely relevant evidence of future operation." Bingo! It's absolutely crucial that ICANN consider past performance. No evaluation would be complete without considering the manner in which Verisign rolled out Sitefinder, IDNs, and other substantive changes to the zone files.

IANA Report on Redelegation of the .ps Top-Level Domain: "In January 2004, ICANN received an expression of interest to redelegate the .ps ccTLD to the Government Computer Center at the new Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology (MOTIT). The request was supported by the Palestinian Territory Government who, through the Palestinian Territory Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology (MOTIT), recognized GCC as the appropriate delegee for the .ps ccTLD."

New on the ICANN Web Site: .ps ccTLD Memorandum of Understanding (Effective 17 June 2004) .

David Weinberger: "Here's a feature I'd like in a mail client: Wait for Message (WFM). Sometimes I'm expecting a message from someone that I want to make sure doesn't get washed down the spam drain. So, I'd like...."

From The Arizona Republic: "People like Reich are why the domain-name business is hot again. In fact, it's hotter now than it's ever been in the brief history of the Internet." Can this be true?

Two new postings on the ICANN site: ICANN-.NG ccTLD Memorandum of Understanding and IANA Report on Redelegation of the .ng Top-Level Domain. This follows press reports earlier this year about the Nigerian government asking ICANN for a "forced redelegation" of the ccTLD.

Now here's an idea...Siegfried Langenbach, writing on the Registrars' List: "If I use a lawyer he normally gives me a detailed list of activities together with his invoice. If we have to pay [ICANN's] bill I would strongly request something equivalent."