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

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DISCLAIMER

ICANN Data Breach, ICANN Refuses to Review New gTLD .HOTEL

Give us yo money, give us* yo data, suckas

*and your competitor(s)

That's what ICANN, in effect, is saying to new gTLD applicants:

ICANN has decided not to re-evaluate the decision to award new gTLD (new generic Top Level Domain), .HOTEL even though the winning applicant has been accused of using a security flaw in ICANN’s database to gain access to other applicants' confidential information (background note: the IRP declaration (pdf), the ICANN Board resolution).

In correspondence dated March 1 (pdf) and March 8 (pdf), 2016, Flip Petillion, an attorney representing other applicants for .HOTEL, told the  ICANN Board of Directors and Akram Atallah, President of ICANN's "Global Domains Division," that they had been derelict in failing to properly investigate the data breach and that allowing the winning applicant to proceed would amount to:

"acquiescence in criminal acts that were committed with the obvious intent to obtain an unfair advantage over direct competitors. Such acquiescence would be contrary to ICANN's obligations under its Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws, and to ICANN's mandate to operate for the benefit of the internet community as a whole ..."

From evidence to date, it actually appears ICANN was at fault, in failing to properly secure its own website or 'portal' used by applicants, which may be the reason ICANN has dragged its feet --

Letter (excerpt) from Attorney Flip Petillion to ICANN Global Domains Division President Akram Atallah, March 1, 2016

In correspondence (embedded below), dated May 11, 2016, ICANN Vice President of gTLD Operations, Christine Willett, told Attorney Petillion that the ICANN Board of Directors would not further review the applications nor 're-evaluate' the winning application. Attorney Petillion had asked ICANN how it would proceed after the ICANN Board issued a resolution recommending ICANN staff investigate the data breach and whether ICANN would reevaluate the winner of .HOTEL, to which Willett responded:

“Your question conflates two aspects of the resolution ... nothing in the board’s resolution speaks to the re-evaluation of .hotel.”

Caveat Emptor: Never, ever, assume base-level competence on the part of ICANN.

See also Petillon's latest correspondence dated May 12, 2016, here (pdf), demanding ICANN cancel the winning application for .hotel. Stay tuned, we may have another case being filed in the U.S. District Court at Los Angeles.


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DISCLAIMER