Showing posts with label Accountable. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Accountable. Show all posts

2017-06-25

News Review: ICANN59 Policy Forum, June 26-29, Johannesburg

News Review | ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2017-06-25):

 Features •  1) ICANN59 Policy Forum, 2) Other ICANN news - Holding ICANN Accountable, 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks, 4) ICYMI, 5) Most Popular.

 1) ICANN59 Policy Forum | Johannesburg | June 26-29
ICANN59 Schedule--"ICANN59 will be ICANN’s second ever Policy Forum. This four-day meeting will be focused on sessions which are core to current policy development work and outreach"--no official opening ceremony, no public forums. The pre-ICANN59 Policy Report embed below:

  • Note the Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice Review Team (CCT Review Team or CCTRT) meeting in Johannesburg on 24-25 June. More info here.
"... even with this huge threat [GDPR] looming over it, ICANN still can’t handle the data protection issue wisely and fairly. All of its efforts to prepare for the crisis reveal the same bias that got it into the problem to begin with. ICANN’s internal efforts involve only registries and registrars – the supply side of the industry – and not registrants .... [ICANN] blog [post by Akram Atallah and Theresa Swinehart] says that ICANN has formed an internal task force “comprised of senior leaders and subject matter experts” to focus on this important matter. Who is on this task force? Just contracted parties (registries and registrars), other registries and ICANN staff ... Not a single representative of domain name registrants, not a single privacy advocate, not a single data protection authority was allowed on the panel. And when we say “not allowed,” we mean it. The person responsible for organizing the session, Peter Vergote of Belgium’s .BE registry, was repeatedly asked to include a registrant representative on that panel. In particular, the name of privacy advocate Stephanie Perrin, an internationally recognized privacy expert, winner of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Pioneer Award, and someone familiar with the workings of ICANN, was put forward. Vergote refused ...."--How ICANN is manipulating its GDPR discussions | InternetGovernance.org by Milton Mueller (link and emphasis added)

2) Other ICANN news: 
a. Holding ICANN Accountable:
What is taking ICANN CFO Xavier Calvez so long (see embed below) to respond to Domain Mondo's inquiry of May 28, 2017? Perhaps "hiding" compensation of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of ICANN, a 501(c)(3) non-profit California corporation, is something that neither the IRS nor the California Attorney General condones? However, it may speak "volumes" of how ICANN is really run and what ICANN leadership really thinks of the global public interest, accountability, and transparency. As I have said before, with ICANN (like dead fish), the rot starts at the top.


 b.  ICANN's dysfunctional Centralized Zone Data Service (CZDS) and Registry Operator Monthly Activity Reports | Advisory and Recommendations (pdf) from ICANN's SSAC (Security and Stability Advisory Committee):
"Top level domain (TLD) zone files are vital resources for performing Domain Name System (DNS) research, security research, and anti-abuse operations. The stated goals of the Centralized Zone Data Service (CZDS) program were standardization and easy, reliable operations for participants who have a requirement to access these zone files ... after three years of operation, community members have documented problems where the CZDS does not deliver on these objectives. Policy and process difficulties prevent subscribers from gaining and then maintaining reliable access to zone files. These problems affect the ability of subscribers to perform research and security functions that benefit the public interest. Furthermore, certain registry metrics related to zone files and WHOIS queries are being reported in an inconsistent fashion. This advisory details these problems and recommends improvements."
source: SSAC SAC097
The above "recommendations" are all based upon minimal common sense, which begs the question: where is ICANN's bloated and overpaid management? Asleep or just incompetent?

c. WS2 Dashboard 23Jun17 final.pdf "this version was rushed for ICANN 59, statistics cover 6-01 thru 6-23 only, not the full month."

 d.  Information for Domain Name Registrants | ICANN.org June 20, 2017. How to find these resources on the ICANN website--"RESOURCES" drop-down menu to "Domain Name Registrants":
See also: Informed and Active Domain Name Registrants are Essential for a Secure and Stable DNS | ICANN.org

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks
•   Update: Systemic Copyright Alternative Dispute Resolution (SCADR) Policy | pir.org June 20, 2017: "... the feedback we have received to date indicates that this solution lacks sufficient support from our stakeholders. Accordingly, PIR will not implement the SCADR."

•  Afnic Study: The Global Domain Name Market in 2016 | afnic.fr: Country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) experienced zero growth in 2016. Overall market growth in 2016 was 7.1%, down from 11.7% in 2015.

•  Of course, most know of the decline in new gTLD domain name registrations in 2017:
Source: ntldstats.com In just 3 months, new gTLD registrations have declined by 2.5 million
ICANN's Theorem of Greed + Incompetence = Choice & Innovation has been proven FALSE.

•  Thinking of Moving Your Website To A New Domain Name? It can (and probably will) take 3 months (or more) for Google Search to pick up all the changes, in the meantime your website will  lose traffic, customers, business and $$, no matter what that SEO guru or new gTLD huckster told you--SERoundTable.com.

•  US Supreme Court (pdf) says in the U.S., a disparaging remark is free speech and can be a registered trademark. See also: SCOTUS Strikes Down Disparaging Trademark Ban | foxrothschild.com.

•   Questions Mount Over Future Of IP [Intellectual Property] | ip-watch.org.

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News:

5) Most popular post (# of pageviews Sun-Sat) this past week on DomainMondo.com: 

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2017-04-12

ICANNgate: Attorney Flip Petillion On Holding ICANN Accountable (podcast)



Code & Conduit Podcast: Holding ICANN Accountable | Interview of Attorney Flip Petillion

Critics of the U.S. government’s decision to give up oversight of internet technical functions (IANA transition) were worried that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which manages the global domain name system (DNS), would not be accountable to the global internet community, which includes new gTLD (new generic top-level domains) applicants.

Lack of predictability has been the main concern with ICANN’s new gTLDs' application process, Flip Petillion, a partner at Crowell & Moring LLP (domain: crowell.com)  in Brussels and co-chair of the firm's top-level domain and domain name practice, told Bloomberg BNA in the latest episode of the Code & Conduit podcast. Petillion said independent panels have rendered conflicting decisions over whether domains such as .car and .cars are confusingly similar.
“Although ICANN has reacted positively in response to certain individual complaints regarding inconsistent determinations on string confusion, it has failed to address the underlying reason for the inconsistencies in the determinations and it has refused to intervene in the majority of cases,” Petillion said.
Petillion discusses the steps ICANN has taken since the oversight transition to address these concerns and some of the remaining challenges.

Twitter: @Crowell_Moring

Petillion's book: Competing for the Internet: ICANN Gate - An Analysis and Plea for Judicial Review Through Arbitration


ISBN-13: 978-9041182524
ISBN-10: 9041182527
on Amazon.com


Podcast source: BNA.com and SoundCloud.com

 feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2016-10-02

News Review: Post-Transition ICANN & The Global Public Interest

Shining A Light: © DomainMondo.com Domain Mondo's weekly review of the news, analysis, and look ahead [pdf]:

 Feature •  Post-IANA Transition Worry: Will the internet, as we know it, survive a 'privatized' ICANN? Or instead, could the internet be run as a 'public good'?

RFC 1591: "... 1) The key requirement is that for each domain there be a designated manager for supervising that domain's name space ... 2) These designated authorities are trustees for the delegated domain, and have a duty to serve the community. The designated manager is the trustee of the top-level domain for both the nation, in the case of a country code, and the global Internet community .... 6) For any transfer of the designated manager trusteeship from one organization to another, the higher-level domain manager (the IANA in the case of top-level domains) must receive communications from both the old organization and the new organization that assure the IANA that the transfer in mutually agreed, and that the new organization understands its responsibilities ..."--Jon Postel, March, 1994
"The free-market triumphalism of the 1990s, and the intensely deregulatory political climate fostered by Bill Clinton’s Democrats and Newt Gingrich’s Republicans, framed full private ownership of the Internet as both beneficial and inevitable .... But the fight is not over. The upcoming ICANN handoff offers an opportunity to revisit the largely unknown story of how privatization happened — and how we might begin to reverse it, by reclaiming the Internet as a public good."--Ben Tarnoff, JacobinMag.com (emphasis added)
Now that the IANA stewardship transition is finished, and the U.S. government is out of the way, what will happen to the internet as we know it?  ICANN insiders may think, with the transition now complete, it's all over.  Sorry, it's just beginning, as I noted March 24, 2015:
ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade's View of the IANA Transition is Shortsighted and Naive | DomainMondo.com: "I think if we get rid of that [IANA] contract we will be free of the pressures."--Fadi Chehadé, (then) ICANN President and CEO, February 10, 2015.
Contact ICANN in a few weeks and ask anyone there (assuming they'll be honest), whether they think ICANN is now "free of the pressures."  I like that quote of Chehadé's above because it is a prime illustration not only of the Peter principle, but also the fact that no one can hide their own incompetence.

I also intentionally chose the quotes first above from Jacobin which, if you are not familiar with that publication, describes itself as "a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture" and carries an endorsement from Noam Chomsky, just to put into perspective the IANA transition, and wipe the conceit off the faces of ICANN insiders and their allies from Washington, D.C., to Silicon Valley, who gloat in their own self-deception that opposition to the 'privatization' of ICANN only comes from the likes of Ted Cruz and the right.

The challenges ICANN faces at present, and those yet to unfold post-transition, are manifold, and for regular readers of Domain Mondo there is no need, nor the space, to provide a laundry list of present problems, much less speculate on the future.

However I will note that the public interest (or public good as Tarnoff calls it) is in direct contrast to the profit-seeking, special interest stakeholders who dominate ICANN processes, structures, and policy-making today.

ICANN is hardly indispensable to the world, which may be a relief to those worried about an organization like ICANN operating without any governmental oversight, a global monopoly that "taxes" domain name registrants who are largely, and intentionally, excluded from ICANN's so-called "community," and which grants exclusive global monopolies to gTLD registry operators with carte blanche permission to engage in predatory pricing practices that exploit registrants worldwide. Is it any wonder why ICANN engenders so much mistrust, not only from those within its own "ICANN community" but also among most domain name registrants?

While ICANN is supposed to serve as a useful and convenient artifice for managing the global DNS and coordinating names, numbers, and protocols of the internet, it has a troubled history and a sick organizational culture. ICANN could be replaced by one or more successors, and already some hope that happens sooner rather than later. The IANA transition may in fact hasten this. ICANN, left to its own devices, with a "community" largely controlled by a few dominant voices, along with a dysfunctional Board of Directors, may not be around for long.

If ICANN, by chance, does make it another 18 years (ICANN was incorporated in 1998), it may be a testament that it adapted and changed to actually serve the global public interest, the needs of the global internet community, not just the special interests who today dominate ICANN structures. But changing organizational culture is hard, and impossible in many cases. Peter Thiel says you have to "fire everybody and start over." Today the culture of the organization known as ICANN is predominantly characterized by its real core values of dishonesty, cronyism (see below), deceit, arrogance, elitism, obfuscation, incompetence, greed, and above all, an ingrained organizational value of evading accountability at all cost, and at all times--just read the IRP declarations in the DotConnectAfrica Trust and Dot Registry cases.

Is there a better way? Yes, and you don't have to look far: The Public Interest Standard in Television Broadcasting:
"The government's exclusionary licensing arrangement was justified by requiring that broadcasters act as public fiduciaries. Their primary duty would be to serve the "public interest, convenience and necessity," as expressed in both the 1927 and 1934 Acts. The Federal Radio Commission that was created by the 1927 Act described the "public trustee" model in this manner: "... the station itself must be operated as if owned by the public" .... The FCC's authority, while extensive, is constrained by traditional First Amendment principles. Government may not censor broadcasters (under Section 326 of the Act), for example, nor may it regulate content ... The public trustee model has given rise to a distinct genre of First Amendment jurisprudence ... Despite the philosophical complications and political tensions that this arrangement entails, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the public trustee basis of broadcast regulation as constitutional. [Citing Red Lion Broadcasting Company v. FCC, 395 U.S. 367 (1969)]."

Other ICANN, Internet Governance, and Domain Name News:

•  Twitter $TWTR (twitter.com) Refuses to Block Account of US-based Turkish Journalist: Motherboard.vice.com reports a Court in Turkey ordered Twitter to block the account of Washington DC-based journalist Mahir Zeynalov, accusing him of “instigating terrorism.” Despite receiving the court order, Twitter refused to comply:
"This is just the latest blatant online censorship attempt from the Turkish government, which has become one of the worst offenders on the internet when it comes to quashing dissenting voices. Last week, in its latest transparency report, Twitter revealed that—once again—Turkey was by far the country that sent the most censorship requests. In the second half of 2015, Turkey tried to censor 8,092 accounts. In the first half of 2016, the country almost doubled that number with 14,953 censorship requests."
ICANN has its EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) hub in Istanbul, Turkey. ICANN's 3 hubs (LA, Singapore, Istanbul) were set up during former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade's tenure. Chehade had a grand vision that ICANN would have 3 headquarters (called "hubs") instead of just a global headquarters in LA. He even said he would move to Singapore and would disperse ICANN staff from LA to the other 2 hubs thereby increasing ICANN's inefficiency, costs, overhead, and complexity.

Chehadé, it seems, thought by wasting a lot of money doing this, ICANN would become a more "global" organization, and unfortunately, the ICANN Board of Directors was too inept or "calcified" (Fadi's term for the Board), to stop him. But Chehade never moved to Singapore, and his visions were anything but grand, most notably, his NETmundial Initiative, which finally "crashed and burned" this year after wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars in ICANN funds on a project outside the scope and mission of ICANN. Fortunately, Chehadé quit as ICANN CEO 3½ years into a 5 year contract, but unfortunately, he left behind his legacy of cronyism at the organization:
"... Chehade and COO Akram Atallah – who are old friends – brought in more and more of their own people ... Not all of them were best suited or qualified, but real frustration developed when jobs were filled without the job even being posted internally. Nora Abusitta-Ouri, a former classmate of Chehade’s, became vice president of public responsibility programs. Former neighbor Susanna Bennett became Chief Operating Officer. Former co-worker Chris Gift became vice president of online community services. Former co-worker Allen Grogan became chief contracting counsel and then when that job finished, chief contract compliance officer. Neighbor of Atallah, Elizabeth Hoover became HR manager. Former co-worker Cyrus Namazi became vice president of industry engagement. Old friend Ashwin Rangan became chief innovation and information officer. The wife of a former co-worker, Maguy Serad, became vice president of contractual compliance. Another former neighbor, Christine Willett, became vice president of gTLD operations. In all, only one member of the C-suite hired since Chehade came on board has not been a friend or former co-worker ..."--IoNmag.asia
As for ICANN's hub in Singapore, the situation is "not good" there either-- Singapore’s wrong turn on the Internet | AEI.org: "Singapore is creating what, in jargon, is termed an “air-gap” between government computers and the global internet. As a result, work computers inside ministries can communicate with each other but not with the outside world ... Air-gapping is common at high-risk targets like intelligence agencies and nuclear plants, but, as a Cisco System official put it, the approach is “most unusual” government-wide."... Freedom House, found in 2015 that internet freedom had declined for the fifth year in a row. (Singapore, by the way, ranks as only “partly free,” according to Freedom House. Among other actions, the government has cracked down on dissident bloggers and shut down a site under the Sedition Act.) ..."

Singapore warns on Pink Dot sponsorship:

The government of Singapore has warned big business against their sponsorship of a gay pride rally. Pink Dot’s sponsors include global corporate powerhouses such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Barclays and Google. Video above published by FT.com. See also: pinkdot.sg.

•  The sad saga of dot GAY continues at ICANN: 13 September 2016 Letter from Arif Hyder Ali to the ICANN Board (pdf) re: New gTLD application for .GAY. (Ali is Partner, Co-Chair of International Arbitration Group, Dechert LLP.)

•  New gTLDs: "The trend is not looking good for the new domain extensions. Overall, the total number of registrations for the top 10 extensions has been down -- from 14.7m on September 10 to 14.1m today [Oct 1, 2016]."--Coreile.com (emphasis added).

•  ICANN Independent Review Process (IRP) and Cooperative Engagement Process (CEP) Status Update (pdf; highlighting added) as of Sep 26, 2016, noted: 1) CEP requested Sep 14, 2016, by DotMusic Limited re .MUSIC; 2) .AMAZON IRP Second Administrative hearing Sep 30, 2016.

•  U.S. jurisdiction: 9/11 Families May Not Be Able to Sue Saudis After All--Bloomberg.com.


Tech News:
  1. End of the Google Search Monopoly: 55% of people in the U.S. start their product searches on Amazon.com $AMZN--prnewswire.com; Google $GOOG can withstand the pressure from Amazon because its advertising revenue is diversified (e.g., video ads on streaming site YouTube.com), says Ali Mogharabi, analyst at Morningstar--Bloomberg.com. But maybe not: Amazon’s Echo is the Next Search Bar--Variety.com: "Google is telling home audio vendors they won't be allowed to add competing smart assistants like Alexa if they want to continue to use Google Cast;" and note Amazon's new Twitch Prime: "... free game loot every month ... discounts on new-release box games ... an ad-free viewing experience, exclusive emotes and chat badge, and one free channel subscription every 30 days ..." 
  2. Samsung's new 'safe' Galaxy Note 7 phones reportedly overheat, explode--telegraph.co.uk.
  3. Google will release 'Pixel 3' laptop with 'Andromeda' OS in Q3 2017--AndroidPolice.com. Watch the Google's October 4th event online. Note also Google Neural Machine Translation system (GNMT)--research.googleblog.com; and G Suite | gsuite.google.com (formerly Google Apps for Work).
  4. Twitter $TWTR in Play: Is the Price Too High? (video)--DomainMondo.com. 
  5. Facebook Profits over Privacy? $FB appeals German order on WhatsApp data--Reuters.com.
  6. India made the biggest leap in the 2016-17 global competitiveness index--Quartz | qz.com. In the 2016-17 rankings, U.S. ranked 3rd, China 28th, and India, Asia’s third-largest economy, ranked 39th among 138 countries. Last year, India was at 55.
  7. How one Amazon Kindle scam made millions of dollars--ZDNet.com: "For years, thousands were tricked into buying low-quality ebooks." [Sounds like one of ICANN's shadier new gTLD Registry operators must have previously sold 'low-quality ebooks.']
  8. NPR.org: "We are on the threshold of possibly understanding both now and the flow of time."

MacroView:
  1. Deutsche Bank: What the Hell is Going On?--MishTalk.com. See also I’m in Awe of How Fast Deutsche Bank is Falling Apart--WolfStreet.com: "This is how Lehman came unglued. Slowly and then all of a sudden;" and EU Banking Mayhem--WolfStreet.com: "The can has been kicked down the road for years. Now negative interest rates appear to have inadvertently crushed the can." Express.co.uk: "Eurozone's banking system could implode, dragging the euro down with it, if Angela Merkel's government allows Deutsche Bank to fail." Finally, Deutsche Bank's Troubles, Europe's Failures | Bloomberg.com Editorial: "... recapitalization. That means performing stress tests that reveal the true scale of banks' needs, figuring out which institutions can and should be allowed to fail, and providing public funds to shore up the rest if necessary."
  2. Near ‘Collapse,’ Minnesota to Raise Obamacare Rates by Half | Bloomberg.com: "The increases range from 50 percent to 67 percent, Commissioner Mike Rothman’s office said in a statement. Rothman, who regulates the state’s insurers, is an appointee under Governor Mark Dayton, a Democrat. The rate hike follows increases for this year of 14 percent to 49 percent."
  3. Election 2016's BIG BUCKS: Wall Street's favorite Hillary Clinton (raising and) outspending Trump 3 to 1 ($526 million vs $182 million, including SuperPACs) through August, 2016 says Bloomberg.com but is it enough to "buy the election?" See also This Chart Predicts Trump Will Win, Unless the S&P Rallies in October | Bloomberg.com and The Debate | Lefsetz.com: "I can’t remember a thing Hillary Clinton said ... Hillary’s out of touch. She’s so focus-grouped that she’s lost her identity ... [and] I want Hillary Clinton to run my government ..." see also Fed on ropes as Yellen seeks to fend off Trump blows--FT.com: "Populist attacks from all sides make central bank [US Federal Reserve] vulnerable to calls to rein it in, say analysts." Finally, more on why you should be "skeptical of polls" from Bloomberg.com.
  4. Reckoning Comes for U.S. Pension Funds as Investment Returns Lag: "It’ll require increased pension contributions on the part of the states and local government, but most state and local governments don’t have the ability to do so."--Bloomberg.com. See also How a pension deal went wrong and cost California taxpayers billions | LATimes.com: "It was a deal that wasn’t supposed to cost taxpayers an extra dime ... California [Democrat] Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation that gave prison guards, park rangers, Cal State professors and other state employees the kind of retirement security normally reserved for the wealthy ... taxpayers will bear the consequences for decades to come."

 Four most popular posts (# of pageviews Sun-Sat) this week on DomainMondo.com:
  1. News Review [25Sep]: BIG Winners of the Week ICANN and TRUMP
  2. Twitter $TWTR in Play: Is the Price Too High? (video)
  3. GoPro CEO on New Camera Drone, Company Performance (video)
  4. End of the BlackBerry Phone and How Smartphone Batteries Catch on Fire
Honorable mention: IANA Transition: What the U.S. Government Is Really 'Giving Up'

• 4 Other Reading Recommendations:
  1. Meet the California Couple Who Uses More Water Than Every Home in Los Angeles Combined | MotherJones.com: Meet "the top 1 percent wrapped in a green veneer, in a veneer of social justice."
  2. The Financial Basket Of Deplorables | tonyisola.com: "... choose transparency, low fees and an investment advisor who will look out for your best interests."
  3. Taking the Stealth Out of [Stealth] Editing | NYTimes.com re: the New York Times' bad habit of changing stories and acting as if nothing was changed. 
  4. The Top Idea in Your Mind | PaulGraham.com: "I'd noticed startups got way less done when they started raising money ... The problem is that once you start raising money, raising money becomes the top idea in your mind. That becomes what you think about when you take a shower in the morning. And that means other questions aren't ... I've found there are two types of thoughts especially worth avoiding ... One I've already mentioned: thoughts about money ... The other is disputes ... avoid disputes if you want to get real work done ..."

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2016-09-30

Holding Wall Street Accountable, Investigating Wells Fargo Bank (video)

Wells Fargo CEO to Forfeit $41 Million:

U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Hearing: “Holding Wall Street Accountable: Investigating Wells Fargo’s Opening of Unauthorized Customer Accounts”

Thursday, September 29, 2016 (10:00 AM) - U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Financial Services Hearing: “Holding Wall Street Accountable: Investigating Wells Fargo’s Opening of Unauthorized Customer Accounts.” The hearing video above starts @18:12. Chair of the Committee is Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). The Committee's Ranking Member is Maxine Waters (D-CA). Other members of the committee are listed here.

Prepared Testimony (pdf) of the witness: John Stumpf, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Wells Fargo & Company

 Note to ICANN stakeholders and ICANN directors: the above video is a good example of what real oversight of, and holding accountable a corporation and its management, actually looks like. Also note the references to "denial" in a dysfunctional organization culture, and using 'forced' arbitration clauses to make redress almost impossible, and other themes equally applicable to ICANN.

 Wells Fargo & Company:
  • Stock exchange: Symbol  |  NYSE: WFC
  • Domain:  WellsFargo.com
  • Area served: Worldwide
  • Global Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States
  • Slogan:  Together we'll go far
  • Industry:  Banking, Financial services
  • Number of employees: 265,200 (2015) [source]
  • Founders: Henry Wells & William Fargo, March 18, 1852
  • Predecessors include: Crocker National Bank; First Interstate Bancorp; Bank of North America; First Security Corporation; Norwest Corporation; Wachovia
  • Divisions: Wells Fargo Rail (Domain: rail.wellsfargo.com) largest rail car and locomotive leasing company in North America with over 175,000 rail cars and 1,800 locomotives
  • Largest shareholders:  Berkshire Hathaway 9.50%; Vanguard Group 5.71%; State Street 3.70%
  • Additional info via Wikipedia:
    Revenue US$86.057 billion (2015)
    Operating income US$33.84 billion (2015)
    Profit US$22.894 billion (2015)
    Total assets US$1.849 trillion (2016)
    Total equity US$193.891 billion (2015)
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) 3-month chart
Financial Services Committee Memorandum (pdf): "... On September 8, 2016, Wells Fargo entered into consent orders with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the City of Los Angeles for alleged unsafe and unsound sales practices, unfair and abusive practices, and unlawful, unfair, and fraudulent sales and related business acts and practices. While neither admitting nor denying the allegations as part of the consent orders, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $190 million in collective fines and restitution. The consent orders asserted that Wells Fargo had fired 5,300 employees over a five year period for opening hundreds of thousands of deposit and credit card accounts without customers’ knowledge or consent. This was allegedly caused by the setting of aggressive sales quotas, pressure from managers to meet those quotas, and inadequate monitoring by Wells Fargo ..."


feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2016-03-08

ICANN a Steward? LOL! This Is How ICANN Wastes Registrants' Money

UPDATE (emphasis added) [CCWG-ACCT] See Photos from Last Night's AFRALO Showcase/Fadi Tribute in #ICANN55:

Dear Eberhard,
Thank you for your question. The Afralo showcase and tribute to Fadi was held on Monday night. The 2 purposes were combined so that they don’t conflict on the schedule and to save logistics and costs. The entire event cost approximately $106,000 to ICANN which was planned for 1200 people. The Afralo showcase (musicians, dancers,…) was paid for by Afralo. In case of interest, ICANN has previously held a community farewell cocktail for exiting CEOs at their last meeting. The cost of this is typically between $50,000 and $60,000. The additional $40,000 we had to pay this time was for the fitted out marquee including AV. This was required on this particular occasion as no other room large enough to accommodate the entire community was available. I hope this is helpful and addresses your question.
Best,
Xavier Calvez
CFO, ICANN

"Thank you very much.
I am shocked at the amount of money ICANN has to waste.
That does put the pressure being applied with regards to funding of WS2
into perspective.
greetings, el"  [Dr Eberhard W Lisse]

[--end of UPDATE--]

From the CCWG-Accountability public email list: [CCWG-ACCT] See Photos from Last Night's AFRALO Showcase/Fadi Tribute in #ICANN55:

"Xavier [Xavier Calvez, ICANN CFO],
I have received the below.
How much did this extravaganza cost ICANN?
greetings, el"
[Dr Eberhard W Lisse - CCWG-Accountability member, representing ccNSO, from the African Region]

"Camels, Drummers And Hundreds of ICANNers: Last Night's AFRALO Showcase And Fadi Tribute Was A Hit!
"Monday's night Tribute to Fadi was a lively affair. Hundreds of ICANN55 participants filled the Orion Tent at the Palmeraie Golf Palace and Resort to enjoy the food, hear traditional Moroccan music and honor Fadi Chehadé's legacy.  Many took to the stage during the evening's festivities including: El Mountassir Billah Azdine, Director General of the National Agency for Regulation of Telecommunications; Xiaodong Lee, CEO & CTO, China Internet Network Information Center; Demi Getschko, Member of the Board, Brazilian Internet Steering Committee; Rinalia Abdul Rahim, ICANN Board Member  and Board Chair Steve Crocker. If you didn't get a chance to take your own camel selfie, you can download last night's photos from ICANN's Flickr account here."--source: ICANN55 newsletter (links added)

The "Fadi" referred to is Fadi Chehade, ICANN's outgoing President & CEO, who gave notice last year that he was quitting ICANN with 2 years left on his contract, and after having served only 2 1/2 years (with a salary+benefits package in the range of $1,000,000+ annually).

Domain Mondo is sure that all domain name registrants worldwide (who fund the bulk of ICANN's wasteful spending), and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz et al, will all be interested to see how ICANN is such a "good steward" of money. Wait until ICANN is no longer subject to U.S. government oversight when the IANA stewardship transition is finished!

Here is an ICANN tweet from last night's "Tribute to Fadi"--
Does anyone wonder what would happen if a government official in the U.S. spent taxpayer funds like ICANN officers and directors spend registrants' taxes fees? How about officers and directors of a publicly listed Fortune 500 corporation who engaged in this kind of corporate waste?
See also on Domain Mondo:





DISCLAIMER
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2015-12-30

What Domain Mondo Will Be Watching For in 2016

So much to choose from! Here are a few of the things Domain Mondo will be watching for in 2016:

ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade
ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade has announced his last day at ICANN will be March 12, 2016 (Icannphotos, Oct 17, 2012)
"I expect to add other roles to my portfolio" --Fadi Chehade, My Transition from ICANN
  1. Who will be the new President and CEO of ICANN? (And whoever it is, good luck!--You're going to need it!)
  2. Once current ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehade is gone, whether March 12, 2016, or sooner, who will be more relieved: Steve Crocker or Larry Strickling? 
  3. Will Fadi move to China and run the "Wuzhen Initiative" for the Communist Party and government of China? Or instead, will Fadi follow the footsteps of his former ICANN Chief Strategy Officer and become Executive Director of  his favorite ICANN stakeholder-lobbyist organization? Or, alternatively, will Fadi be offered a part-time job (to add to his portfolio--"it's payback time, baby!") by the only ICANN stakeholder-lobbyist organization which ICANN actually "got in bed with" (joined as a full member) during Fadi's tenure as President & CEO?
  4. Will NTIA and the Obama administration pull the plug on the IANA transition after Chehade's Wuzhen shenanigans, OR will Congress actually allow the IANA Transition to happen (assuming it gets that far), OR will Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio or the Real Donald TRUMP stop it dead in its tracks?
  5. Will both, or either, .WEB and .WEBS be delegated into the Internet Root in 2016?
  6. Will Google finally figure out it has no clue how to market domain names or run a registrar or registry, and should have never gotten into the domain names business?
  7. When will Alphabet realize its brand name and domain name [abc.xyz] are both lame?
  8. What will happen to Yahoo?
  9. Which new gTLD will be the first to Go Dark (and take down all its websites with it)?
  10. Which new gTLD registry operator will be the first to file bankruptcy or receivership?
  11. How will the U.S. government ensure that its trusted contractor, Verisign, continues as the Internet's Root Zone Maintainer?
  12. Will Verisign be indemnified by ICANN, and PTI, once Verisign no longer has the benefit of U.S. government contractor immunity as Root Zone Maintainer? In that case, if ICANN's new gTLDs expansion crashes the Internet, could Verisign end up owning ICANN and PTI and/or all their assets--deja vu Network Solutions circa 1995?
  13. When will the music stop for Neustar and $NSR shareholders in 2016?
  14. Which U.S. law firm will be the first to file a lawsuit (e.g., antitrust) against ICANN, or its subsidiary PTI, once ICANN no longer has U.S. government contractor immunity (tentative end date: September 30, 2016)? What new potential legal liabilities (pdf) will every gTLD registry operator have after ICANN is no longer a U.S. government contractor?
  15. What will be more popular with governments, network administrators, and consumers around the world at the end of 2016: ad blockers or TLD blockers?
  16. Will ICANN ever be accountable? OK, everyone already knows the answer to this one: No.
See also: After Wuzhen, Should ICANN President & CEO Fadi Chehade Be Fired?




DISCLAIMER
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2015-12-22

Caveat ICANN: FIFA Bans Blatter and Platini For Conflict of Interest (video)



FIFA Bans Blatter and Platini From World Soccer -  FIFA President Sepp Blatter and the head of European soccer, Michel Platini, have been banned from world soccer for eight years by a FIFA ethics committee for "Conflict of Interest."  Published on Dec 21, 2015 by WSJ.com.

What would happen at ICANN in a similar situation? The evidence indicates conflicts of interest, or inappropriate conduct with parties having vested interests ("stakeholders"), by ICANN Officers (and staff) are tolerated, ignored, or even encouraged and rewarded! Who's legally responsible? Ultimately the ICANN Board of Directors under California law. Has the ICANN Board of Directors been held accountable for its failure to have in place or enforce an effective Code of Conduct for all ICANN officers and staff? Of course not! That's the reality of ICANN accountability, now, and probably in the future, despite all the talk of "enhancing ICANN accountability"--see, e.g., on Domain Mondo: this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this.




DISCLAIMER
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2015-11-16

CCWG on ICANN Accountability Issues Preview of Third Draft Proposal

CCWG-Accountability: A Preview of the Third Draft Proposal on Work Stream 1 Recommendations (pdf)
Above: Screenshot of front page of CCWG-Accountability: A Preview of the Third Draft Proposal on Work Stream 1 Recommendations (pdf) (15 Nov 2015)
CCWG-Accountability Issues Formal Update on Progress Made In and After ICANN54 in Dublin: "This is a brief and preliminary overview of the proposal for improving ICANN's accountability developed by the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) over the past year. It includes a very high-level summary of the main changes being proposed by the community and outlines what will be described in the full proposal. This 36-page document is designed to update the community on recent progress in and after ICANN54 in Dublin and raise awareness of the proposed enhancements to ICANN's accountability as a more detailed proposal is finalized. While this formal update reflects the current consensus positions of the group, there are outstanding elements that remain to be finalized. These finishing details are highlighted in the document, and will be confirmed and detailed in the Third Draft Proposal." (source: ICANN CCWG-Accountability; emphasis added).

The full Third Draft Proposal will be published on 30 November 2015, for public review and comment, and will include "further explanation and detail about the accountability improvements" outlined in the Preview document. It will also "explain why the changes have been suggested, how the community arrived at these recommendations and the options considered and ultimately rejected in development of the proposal."

Background: Over the last year, a working group of ICANN community members has been developing a set of proposed enhancements to ICANN's accountability to the global Internet community. This effort is integral to the transition of the United States' stewardship of the IANA functions to the global Internet community, reflecting the ICANN community's conclusion that improvements to ICANN's accountability were necessary in the absence of the accountability backstop that the historical contractual relationship with the United States government provided. The accountability improvements set out in this document are not designed to change ICANN's multistakeholder model, the bottom-up nature of policy development nor significantly alter ICANN's day-to-day operations. The main elements of the proposal are outlined below. Together with ICANN's existing structures and groups, these accountability enhancements will ensure ICANN remains accountable to the global Internet community.

  • A revised Mission statement for the ICANN Bylaws that sets out what ICANN does. This Mission statement clarifies but does not change ICANN's historic mission
  • An enhanced Independent Review Process and redress process with a broader scope and the power to ensure ICANN stays within its revised Mission
  • New specific powers for the ICANN community that can be enforced when the usual methods of discussion and dialogue have not effectively built consensus including the powers to:

    • Reject ICANN Budgets, Operating Plans or Strategic Plans
    • Reject changes to ICANN's Bylaws
    • Approve changes to new Fundamental Bylaws (see below)
    • Remove an individual ICANN Director from the Board
    • Recall the entire ICANN Board

  • An additional new power that gives the community a say in decisions about the IANA Function Reviews and any separation of the IANA Names Functions
  • All of these community powers can only be exercised after extensive community discussions and debates through processes of engagement and escalation. The process of escalation provides many opportunities for the resolution of disagreements between the parties before formal action is required.

    • The accountability elements outlined above will be supported through:
    • Additions to the ICANN Bylaws to create an Empowered Community that is based on a simple legal vehicle that will act on the instructions of ICANN stakeholder groups to exercise the Community Powers. The Empowered Community is granted the status of a Designator (a recognized role in law) and has the standing to enforce the Community Powers if needed.
    • Core elements of ICANN's governing documents (the Articles and Bylaws) being categorized asFundamental Bylaws that can only be changed with agreement between the ICANN community and the ICANN Board.
    In addition, further proposed changes include:
    • A recognition of ICANN's respect for Human Rights
    • Incorporation of ICANN's commitments under the 2009 Affirmation of Commitments (AoC) with the United States Department of Commerce into the Bylaws, where appropriate
    • Improved accountability and diversity for ICANN's Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees (SO/ACs)
    • A commitment to discuss additional accountability improvements and broader accountability enhancements in 2016, following implementation of this core set of accountability improvements.
    For more information read the entire announcement here.
    Source: ICANN (emphasis added)




    DISCLAIMER
    Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    2015-11-04

    ICANN, Domain Industry, Special Interests, and the Global Public Interest

    Background: The NETmundial Multistakeholder Statement says the “Internet is a global resource which should be managed in the public interest.” Resolutions appended to the ITU’s core treaties say that IP-based networks must be interoperable and globally reachable in the public interest, and that governments must provide a clear legal framework “to ensure adequate protection of public interests in the management of Internet resources, including domain names and addresses.” ICANN’s Bylaws and Affirmation of Commitments employ the term three and five times, respectively. ICANN’s GAC has invoked the term to justify some of its positions, and applicants for new gTLDs are asked to undertake Public Interest Commitments. But what does the “public interest” really mean with respect to critical Internet resources? There has been no collective effort to clarify the standard to be followed. ICANN’s new Strategic Plan prioritizes developing ”a common consensus based definition of public interest” for the organization.--see description of IGF 2015 Workshop No. 52, The Global “Public Interest” in Critical Internet Resources (emphasis added)

     Context: CCWG-Accountability--Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability--from its public mail list, November 2, 2015 (emphasis added):

    Trying to come up with a definition of "global public interest", whether by the Board, the Community or the Sole Designator (?) seems like an effort that will either be endless or perilous. Baking it into the Bylaws seems like an awful idea.--Greg Shatan, President, IPC

    I agree, this could lead us down a very tortured path.--J. Beckwith Burr

    As a point of information, ICANN’s Development and Public Responsibility Department (DPRD) has already started conversations within the community on how to define “public interest” within ICANN, with the anticipation that this multistakeholder definitional work will proceed in earnest soon.  This has been forecast in ICANN’s Strategic Plan.--Samantha Eisner, ICANN Staff Attorney

    ICANN--the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers--and the Public Interest: a Contradiction in Terms?

    "ICANN is an organization rooted in the private sector (including civil society) with governments in an advisory capacity. In the Affirmation of Commitments of 2009, ICANN committed itself to act in the global public interest. ICANN is a bottom-up organisation which has its origins in one country and is driven by a community that is dominated by the domain industry and other special interests. So it is not always easy to ensure that the decisions taken by ICANN are in the global public interest. But more and more people in ICANN have realised that efforts should be strengthened to increase the diversity of stakeholders in ICANN so that more diverse interests are better represented. It is also the role of governments in ICANN to make sure that a minimum level of diversity of views is brought in to ICANN and that a good balance is struck between different special interests so that, in the end, something like a globally aggregated public interest can be identified. In addition, a discussion has started in ICANN about how to better understand the notion of global public interest and how to improve its accountability mechanisms so that the global public interest is better reflected in its decisions. There is still much work ahead, but ICANN’s current efforts are going in the right direction." -- Thomas Schneider, Swiss cyber-diplomat and the Chairman of ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC); Geneva Digital Watch: Issue 5, November 2015 (pdf),(links and emphasis added).

    Affirmation of Commitments by the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), September 30, 2009: “ … This document affirms key commitments by DOC and ICANN, including commitments to: (a) ensure that decisions made related to the global technical coordination of the DNS are made in the public interest and are accountable and transparent; (b) preserve the security, stability and resiliency of the DNS; (c) promote competition, consumer trust, and consumer choice in the DNS marketplace; and (d) facilitate international participation in DNS technical coordination … DOC affirms its commitment to a multi-stakeholder, private sector led, bottom-up policy development model for DNS technical coordination that acts for the benefit of global Internet users. A private coordinating process, the outcomes of which reflect the public interest, is best able to flexibly meet the changing needs of the Internet and of Internet users. ICANN and DOC recognize that there is a group of participants that engage in ICANN's processes to a greater extent than Internet users generally. To ensure that its decisions are in the public interest, and not just the interests of a particular set of stakeholders, ICANN commits to perform and publish analyses of the positive and negative effects of its decisions on the public, including any financial impact on the public, and the positive or negative impact (if any) on the systemic security, stability and resiliency of the DNS … a multi-stakeholder, private sector led organization with input from the public, for whose benefit ICANN shall in all events act… ICANN commits to maintain and improve robust mechanisms for public input, accountability, and transparency so as to ensure that the outcomes of its decisionmaking will reflect the public interest and be accountable to all stakeholders … ensuring that ICANN is acting transparently, is accountable for its decision-making, and acts in the public interest …. “

    Public Interest: Anything affecting the rights, health, or finances of the public at large. 

    Public interest is a common concern among citizens in the management and affairs of local, state, and national government. It does not mean mere curiosity but is a broad term that refers to the body politic and the public weal. A public utility is regulated in the public interest because private individuals rely on such a company for vital services. (source: West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. S.v. "Public Interest." legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com)

    The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales argues that applying a detailed definition [of "Public Interest"] is likely to result in unintended consequences, in Acting in the Public Interest (2012). Instead, each circumstance needs to be assessed based on criteria such as the relevant public, wants, and constraints. The key to assessing any public interest decision is transparency of the decision-making process, including balancing competing interests. (Wikipedia)

    Meaning of public interest | ALRC | Australian Law Reform Commission: "... Should public interest be defined?
    8.35 ‘Public interest’ should not be defined, but a list of public interest matters could be set out in the new Act. The list would not be exhaustive, but may provide the parties and the court with useful guidance, making the cause of action more certain and predictable in scope. This may in turn reduce litigation.
    8.36 In Hogan v Hinch, French CJ stated that when ‘used in a statute, the term [public interest] derives its content from “the subject matter and the scope and purpose” of the enactment in which it appears’. 8.37 In the UK, the Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions concluded that there should not be a statutory definition of the public interest, as ‘the decision of where the public interest lies in a particular case is a matter of judgment, and is best taken by the courts in privacy cases’.
    8.38 Including a non-exhaustive list of public interest matters seems more helpful than a definition of public interest, which might necessarily have to be overly general or overly confined and inflexible...."

    See also: The Global “Public Interest” in Critical Internet Resources | DigitalWatch: notes from an IGF2015 session and YouTube video of that session. Domain Mondo's notes: Larry Strickling suggested "framing" or public interest described via a series of attributes. Others: public interest contrasted with naked private interests or interests of private gain; Framework of Principals; Right Participation in making decision; and Definitions vs Examples.



    DISCLAIMER
    Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
    Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

    Domain Mondo archive