Important blog post about the ICANN Accountability CCWG

[Sam Lanfranco]

Nicolas raises some good points, and I suspect we are talking about the 
same public interest here. I too at one time felt that ICANN could be 
the place where protections for global public interest could reside. My 
shift in thought is from viewing protecting the public interest much in 
the way we champion (and try to protect) human rights. The shift is from 
looking for a venue to looking at ways to embed the processes where 
appropriate, some of which may evolved within ICANN’s remit, and others 
which likely will reside elsewhere. The Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights (UDHR) is a Charter, it has no regulatory authority and the 
pursuit of human rights take place elsewhere, across a myriad of venues.

As an economist I am keenly aware of the difference between "a public 
good" and "the public good". The first has to do with the intrinsic 
properties of a good or service, and the other is more like the UDHR, 
pointing to a future we wish to have. Trying to treat domain names as 
"public goods" is problematic at many levels.

Vesting regulatory authority in any entity, ICANN or AnyCo, is 
problematic as well. I agree with Nicolas' point that NCSG's defense of 
the global public interest involves making sure that there are no basis 
for enacting stuff, within ICANN's remit, that goes against a global 
public interest. Rather than an all knowing and omnipotent public 
interest regulatory body, what is needed is greater awareness and 
increase vigilance of threats to the public interest wherever they might 
arise, and keeping the global public interest at the substantive 
forefront of an "IG system"." Let a thousand NCSG offspring take root.

Sam
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