Elliott Noss, the CEO of Tucows has written an article about ICANN on ZDNet and News.com.
Well, this is a mainstream article for the average USA Today reader.
First, there is the usual anti -UN rethoric. Mentioning Cuba, China, Iran, etc to demonstrate that there is a danger for freedom of expression is of course easy. If he were to mention that the US, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand are also part of this group, the perceived danger would be much less, and he would not be able to make his case.
Undemocratic governements do not even need additional control on IP addresses and domain names. They already control it today, often using equipment that companies from democratic countries sold them. Business is business and ethics do not improve quarterly results.
Suggesting that WSIS/WGIG wants to dismantle ICANN and is a danger for the free Internet is plain FUD. Suggesting that ICANN need to be preserved to save the free Internet is giving to ICANN powers it does not have.
And although Noss acknowledges that the ICANN/DoC MoU is a concern, he does not offer any answer to this. He is claiming that ICANN is not American because it holds its meetings outside the US and most of its board is non-American. ICANN is American because it runs under a contract with the US governement and is subject to US laws.
I am not sure such biased FUD is serving ICANN at all. This is not a black and white world.
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