CADNA calls for audit of ICANN

CADNA, a non-profit organization often at odds with ICANN, has called for a full audit of the Internet governing agency– exactly one week before the expiration of the JPA.

CADNA wants the government to carefully investigate ICANN’s policies, structure, governance, and oversight methods before any changes are made to the JPA. Josh Bourne, President of CADNA, said:

ICANN is broken. We’re releasing our “Top Ten List” of things wrong with ICANN and proposing a full- scale audit of the nonprofit organization that controls Internet policy.

The “Top Ten List” explains ten problems the government would find wrong with ICANN if a full examination of the agency were conducted:

1. ICANN is a captured regulator
2. ICANN is not independent
3. ICANN is not transparent
4. ICANN is more interested in making a profit than working for the benefit of Internet users
5. ICANN is not accessible
6. ICANN is failing to address numerous issues corrupting the Internet
7. ICANN’s proposed gTLD rollout is poorly conceived
8. ICANN is not looking at itself critically
9. ICANN is risking cybersecurity, national security, and global security
10. ICANN’s relationship with the US government does not span all relevant agencies

Personally, I feel CADNA has a point. ICANN has a very poor track record and their motives are often open to question. I think the Internet would be a much better place if the government paid more attention to ICANN.

Source | SOA World

ICANN Slammed by CADNA for Poor Job

ICANN has been criticized yet again this week. This time, by The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA).

CADNA was founded in 2007 to fight cybersquatting, the abusive buying and selling of domain names with spellings similar to trademarked names (googgle.com, bbc.info, etc.) Members of the non-profit organization, which has always been a vocal critic of ICANN, include Dell, Nike, and Verizon.

In the past, CADNA has denounced ICANN for its lax response to cybersquatting. This time, the group is complaining about how ICANN conducts itself, slamming it for providing only a 12-day deadline to provide input regarding the implementation of new top-level domains (gTLDs) at an Implementation Recommendation Team (IRT) meeting.

From CADNA’s press release:

“ICANN continually imposes superficial deadlines on policy decisions, leading to rushed results,” said Josh Bourne, President of CADNA. The IRT was created by ICANN’s Board of Directors during its March 1 to March 6 international public meeting. The IRT held its first meeting for administrative purposes on March 25 and was directed by ICANN to produce a report in less than one month. Now, the public must submit comments on the 48 page document within a week and a half of the report’s publication if the comments are to be included in the IRT’s final report.

“Twelve days is simply not enough time to consider and develop meaningful comments, said Bourne. “Moreover, the short timetable once again reflects ICANN’s lack of engagement with the public on major policy decisions.” Bourne continued, “The IRT thoughtfully took into account how new gTLDs will create threats to brand holders — however, its report tries to resolve problems that should not exist in the first place.”

It seems as though ICANN just can’t get any love lately.