Date: 10 May 2010
Subject: IP Justice Supports Decision of Independent Review Panel, Mechanism for Accountability & Legitimacy
Sent To: ICM-options-report@icann.org
Background Info: ICANN Public Comment Period
Comments of IP Justice
IP Justice supports the swift adoption of the decision of the Independent Review Panel (IRP) by ICANN and the inclusion of the applied for .xxx domain name into the root.
This IRP decision should not be, and cannot be, a referendum on pornography as some comments urge. This decision is only about ICANN’s accountability mechanism – its means of correcting its past mistakes, and in particular its mishandling of the .xxx domain name application.
Certainly ICANN is not proposing that after all objective tests have been met, the particular subject matter of applied-for domains will be put to a worldwide popularity contest to determine if they will be allowed into the root – yet that is what this comment period seems to imply.
Freedom of expression would be chilled if controversial subjects were not allowed as top level domain names and ICANN should not offer itself as a tool to censors. Innovation and competition are also threatened when public comment against an otherwise qualified registry application can kill the domain. ICANN should not open up the Pandora’s box of asking for lobbying for and against every TLD application that comes in; it substantially undermines ICANN’s legitimacy to do so.
Accept the decision of the IRP and show the Internet community that ICANN does learn from its past mistakes and is capable of correcting them on its own and without further coercion.
Thank you,
Robin Gross
IP Justice Executive Director
http://www.ipjustice.org