Senate & House Chairmen's Letter to Attorney General & Commerce Sec.

Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), sent the following letter (embed below) on September 8, 2016,  to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, urging them to reconsider the IANA Stewardship Transition. Letter excerpts immediately below, followed by full letter embed. See also US Senator Cruz Attacks ICANN, Fadi Chehadé, IANA Transition (video) and ICANN Answers Questions About The IANA Stewardship Transition.

3 excerpts: Antitrust - Accountability - Jurisdiction

Letter (pdf) embed below:


feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

IANA & ICANN: Cruz, Lankford & Lee Letter to Pritzker & Strickling

Senate Commerce Hearing on ICANN & IANA Transition, LIVE, Tuesday, May 24 at 10am ET

Embedded below is U.S. Senators Cruz, Lankford & Lee's May 19th letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and NTIA's Larry Strickling concerning the IANA Stewardship Transition proposal currently under review by NTIA.

The letter touches on several hot-button issues, including:

• endangerment of internet freedom;
• power of foreign governments over the internet under the proposal;
• opening the door to regulation of internet content;
• transfer of U.S. government property issues;
• ICANN's U.S. jurisdiction subject to change after the transition;
• an unaccountable ICANN Board of Directors;
• ICANN ex-CEO Fadi Chehade's failure to respond to specific questions about his involvement with the Chinese government's World Internet Conference;
• other issues unaddressed by the proposal, including future of .mil and .gov TLDs, ICANN's antitrust status, ICANN's potential to "impose global taxes" without U.S. government oversight;

and the letter concludes: "In light of all these concerns and the magnitude of the potential consequences, we respectfully request that you extend NTIA's IANA functions contract with ICANN."



See also on Domain Mondo:

• Senate Commerce Hearing on ICANN & IANA Transition, Tuesday, May 24
• US Senators Cruz, Lankford & Lee Accuse ICANN of Stonewalling Congress
• US Senators Cruz, Lankford, Lee's New Letter to ICANN Chairman re: China
• US Senators Cruz, Lankford & Lee Demand Answers From ICANN CEO
• IANA Transition: Constitutionality, Letter to GAO, CCWG Meeting Sept 29

Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Is ICANN's IANA Stewardship Transition Plan DOA Washington DC? (video)

Is the IANA Stewardship Transition Plan DOA [Dead on Arrival] in Washington? On Tuesday, February 23, 2016, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker (NTIA is an agency of the Commerce Department) testified in a budget hearing before the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, and was asked specifically, by Subcommittee Chairman John Culberson, if she understood Congress had prohibited any effort towards an IANA stewardship transition--watch the relevant portion of that testimony below (27:20-32:53)--

Video above starts at 27:20, and ends at 32:53. Hearing: Department of Commerce Budget - The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science holds a hearing to review the FY 2017 budget request for the U.S. Department of Commerce. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker testifies. (Streamed live Feb 23, 2016) (EventID=104476).

Excerpt:

Chairman John Culberson: "You recognize we've prohibited any effort to move to such a [IANA stewardship] transition?"

Secretary Pritzker: "I understand the language which has been put in appropriations, and so what we are going to do is receive a plan and then we will talk to you about it."

It is now expected that the ICANN Board of Directors will deliver, in March, 2016, to NTIA, the IANA Stewardship Transition Plan developed in response to the NTIA, March, 2014, announcement.

For background and further information see on Domain Mondo:

• IANA Stewardship Transition, New ICANN CCWG Accountability Timeline
• US Senators Cruz, Lankford & Lee Demand Answers From ICANN CEO
• US Congressman Tells ICANN CEO To 'Abandon' IANA Transition
• After Wuzhen, Should ICANN President & CEO Fadi Chehade Be Fired?
• How ICANN and ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé Evade Accountability

Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

How ICANN and ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé Evade Accountability

Something is rotten in ICANN and the old saying is the rot starts at the top. Embedded below, and here (pdf), is the Editor of Domain Mondo's interchange with ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé in October, 2015, at the ICANN54 Public Forum, and follow-up by ICANN staff in January, 2016, in advance of the ICANN Quarterly Stakeholder call. A copy of the interchange below has been sent to Penny Pritzker, U.S. Commerce Secretary, Larry Strickling (NTIA), and a few others. One can only conclude and surmise from all of this:

1) ICANN intentionally nurtures conflicts of interest as its normal way of doing business (question 1 below);
2) In regard to 21st Century Fox's Rick Lane's questions at ICANN54 Public Forum and ICANN's non-responses below, it is possible ICANN has been paying $$ to influence foreign governments and others outside the U.S. [the two links provided by James Cole of ICANN below are not responsive. The inquiry is not directed to ICANN's U.S. government lobbying, but instead, ICANN's activities outside the U.S., the specifics of which ICANN refuses to disclose]. 

Final note: on January 28, 2016, Mike Silber, ICANN Board Member responded by email:

"Hi John
On 27/01/2016 20:12, John Poole wrote: [DomainMondo.com Editor’s Note: Question was submitted via email, October 21, 2015 (US time), approximately 12 hours before the Public Forum commenced.] Thank you for the clarification. Let me see if those type of questions (dense, but well thought out) can be easily accessed prior to the start of the public forum, so we don't deflect."

Now that ICANN and ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehade have been called to account by U.S.Senators Cruz, Lankford, and Lee, it will be interesting to see how ICANN and its CEO try to avoid the truth and evade accountability, once again. To get full answers to the questions raised above will, apparently, require a U.S. Senate or House investigation, and a Federal Government Audit--Federal Government Contractors are subject to audits performed by a U.S.Government agency such as the Government Accountability Office (GAO)--as well as an IRS (Internal Revenue Service) audit of ICANN's finances for the entire time (2012-2016) Fadi Chehade has been President and CEO of ICANN.

Frankly, none of this bodes well for the IANA stewardship transition. The "accountability mechanisms" proposed by the hardworking sub-group of the ICANN community (CCWG-Accountability) though well-intentioned, are immensely inferior to the accountability mechanisms of the U.S. government as indicated above. Add to that the inept or mostly passive ICANN Board of Directors who allow ICANN staff to run unchecked under the leadership of a CEO unqualified for the position--who himself carved out most of the core functions of ICANN (including the critical IANA functions--see below) into a new "Global Domains Division" (GDD) and put his crony who got him the job at ICANN in charge--allowing the CEO to spend most of his time globetrotting, dabbling in geo-politics, and self-promotion--setting himself up for his post-ICANN career "portfolio".

ICANN organizational chart, p. 5 (pdf) 06/01/2015: The IANA department is part of the Global Domains Division (GDD)
Elise Gerich, VP of IANA, reports to Akram Atallah, GDD President, who reports to ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade

Next post on Domain Mondo: Is ICANN Too Broken To Be Reformed? A Question from CCWG Mail List

See also on Domain Mondo:

• New ICANN President and CEO Göran Marby of Sweden, Starts May 2016: "But troubling reports indicate his temperament and leadership style are incompatible with ICANN's collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach to internet governance."
• ICANN 54 Public Forum Video, Q&A, ICANN, INTA, IANA, Lobbyists
• ICANN Lobbying, Conflicts, Ethics, Transparency, Accountability, Disclosure
• Why Did ICANN Become a Member of Trademark Lobbyist Group INTA?

Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Data Privacy: EU Court Strikes Down EU-US Safe Harbor, US Tech Losers

"... For all those reasons, the Court declares the Safe Harbour Decision invalid. This judgment has the consequence that the Irish supervisory authority is required to examine Mr Schrems’ complaint with all due diligence and, at the conclusion of its investigation, is to decide whether, pursuant to the directive, transfer of the data of Facebook’s European subscribers to the United States should be suspended on the ground that that country does not afford an adequate level of protection of personal data." EU Court decision, October 6, 2015 (emphasis added)

Europe’s highest court has struck down the “safe harbor” agreement between the US and EU, which has potentially enormous negative consequences for all US companies involved in transfer of data from EU citizens to the US, e.g., Facebook, Google, Microsoft, etc. 

U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary, Penny Pritzker, immediately responded with following statement in response to the European Court of Justice decision regarding the "Safe Harbor Framework"--

“Since 2000, the Safe Harbor Framework has proven to be critical to protecting privacy on both sides of the Atlantic and to supporting economic growth in the United States and the EU. We are deeply disappointed in today’s decision from the European Court of Justice, which creates significant uncertainty for both U.S. and EU companies and consumers, and puts at risk the thriving transatlantic digital economy. Among other things, the decision does not credit the benefits to privacy and growth that have been afforded by this Framework over the last 15 years.

For the last two years, we have worked closely with the European Commission to strengthen the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework, with robust and transparent protection, including clear oversight by the Department of Commerce and strong enforcement by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

The court’s decision necessitates release of the updated Safe Harbor Framework as soon as possible.

We are prepared to work with the European Commission to address uncertainty created by the court decision so that the thousands of U.S. and EU businesses that have complied in good faith with the Safe Harbor and provided robust protection of EU citizens’ privacy in accordance with the Framework’s principles can continue to grow the world's digital economy.”

For more information:

• Application, Opinion, and Judgment: curia.europa.eu/juris/documents C-362/14
• Press Release: http://g8fip1kplyr33r3krz5b97d1.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/schrems-judgment.pdf
• Legal analysis: http://www.expvc.com/2015/10/eu-court-invalidates-eu-us-safe-harbor.html

Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

ICANN 51, Opening Ceremony video replay

EVENT Starts at 32:20 (forward the video)
Opening Ceremony and Welcome Session for ICANN's 51st public meeting in Los Angeles on 13 October 2014

ICANN Board Chairman Steve Crocker, US Dept of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade


Follow @DomainMondo