This letter constitutes a reiteration of our public
petition of 23 April, 1999 under Article VI-B, Section 3(d) of the
ICANN bylaws for recognition of the Individual Domain Name Owner’s
constituency (the IDNO) as a Constituency of ICANN’s Domain Name
Supporting Organization (the DNSO.)
The IDNO was formed in April 1999. It is a self-organized,
primarily member funded, highly international constituency, springing
from no pre-existing organizations or structures. Yet its membership
is already larger than of any of the existing DNSO Constituencies.
And we expect that the IDNO's membership will grow rapidly once the
IDNO is a recognized constituency.
IDNO members are active participants in ICANN, having
attended several of ICANN’s meetings.
Our members come from many parts of the world.
IDNO members are active participants in the DNSO’s
General Assembly and in the DNSO’s various working groups.
The IDNO maintains a site on the World Wide Web at http://www.democracy.org.nz/idno//
containing a members’ list, charter, archive of on-line discussions,
voting system, and other materials and resources.
The IDNO has a public, archived e-mail discussion list.
The IDNO is the only constituency with a fully operational
electronic voting system that has been repeatedly and successfully
used to guide the IDNO as it evolves.
The purpose the IDNO is to give a voice to those individuals
who “own” domain names.
The IDNO’s focus is on individuals, not on corporations
or organizations. The IDNO does not care whether a member is a businessperson,
a teacher, an artist, or a person using the Internet to express his
or her opinions.
Because essentially all of the existing DNSO constituencies
are open only to corporations and organizations, these individuals
have no way but the IDNO to fully participate within the DNSO.
We must mention that membership in the DNSO General
Assembly, although nominally open to individuals, is no substitute
for having a Constituency to defend Individuals' domain name interests.
It is only through the IDNO as a recognized Constituency that individual
domain name owners can participate with a full and peer voice on the
DNSO’s names council.
The IDNO has adopted an inclusive approach to its membership.
Unlike other Constituencies which require that a candidate for membership
be a corporation or an organization, or be engaged in a particular
type of business, the IDNO simply looks at whether a candidate “owns”
a domain name.
The IDNO measures ownership not by legal formalisms,
but rather by a pragmatic evaluation whether the candidate has sufficient
elements of control over a domain name that it amounts to what reasonable
people would consider to be ownership. Our membership rules permit
membership even when the domain name owner owns the name through a
intermediary, such as a corporation or trust, that is fully under
the control of the candidate.
The IDNO has evolved beyond a gathering of people. The
IDNO has both an elected Steering Committee and a Membership Committee.
The IDNO is an early, and perhaps the first successful experiment
in broadly based democratic participation within ICANN.
The IDNO brings to ICANN the concerns of the individual
domain name owner, concerns that have so far lacked an advocate.
We have attached two Appendices to this petition:
Appendix A is simply an excerpt from the ICANN By-Laws
of the sections governing the recognition of Constituencies.
Appendix B is the IDNO’s charter. This charter
is still evolving and parts are still awaiting ratification (using
our electronic voting system) from our growing membership.
Sincerely,
Joop Teernstra
(Constituency bootstrap) , New Zealand
the IDNO Steering Committee:
Karl Auerbach
karl@cavebear.com, United States
Dan Steinberg dstein@travel-net.com ,Canada
William X. Walsh william@dso.net ,United States
Mikki Barry ooblick@netpolicy.com ,United States
Kevin Kelly kevin@kellywebworks.com ,United States
Srikanth Narra snarra@talus.net ,India
Roeland Meyer rmeyer@mhsc.com ,United States
Bradley Thornton tallship@tallship.net ,United States
Dietmar Stefitz djs@bemarnet.es ,Spain
Arnold Gehring alg@open.org ,United States
Andy Gardner andy@navigator.co.nz ,New Zealand
Rachel Luxemburg rslux@link-net.com ,United States
Karl Peters bridge@darientel.net ,United States
Joe Abley jabley@patho.gen.nz ,New Zealand
Mark Langston skritch@home.com ,United States
Dennis Schaefer d3nnis@mciworld.com ,United States
David Zanetti dave2@earthling.net ,New Zealand
Rod Dixon rod@cyberspaces.org ,United States
Mark Measday measday@josmarian.ch ,Switzerland
Joan Faber faber@idt.net ,United States
Allan Speedy allan@netnz.co.nz ,New Zealand
Appendix A – Relevant sections of the ICANN By-Laws
ARTICLE VI-B: THE DOMAIN NAME SUPPORTING ORGANIZATION
Section 3: THE CONSTITUENCIES
(a) Each Constituency shall self-organize, and shall
determine its own criteria for participation, except that no individual
or entity shall be excluded from participation in a Constituency merely
because of participation in another Constituency, and constituencies
shall operate to the maximum extent feasible in an open and transparent
manner and consistent with procedures designed to ensure fairness.
The Board shall recognize a Constituency (including the initial Constituencies
described in (b) below) by a majority vote, whereby the Constituency
shall be deemed to exist for purposes of these Bylaws.
…
(d) Any group of individuals or entities may petition
the Board for recognition as a new or separate Constituency. Any such
petition will be posted for public comment pursuant to Article III,
Section 3. The Board may create new Constituencies in response to
such a petition, or on its own motion, if it determines that such
action would serve the purposes of the Corporation. In the event the
Board is considering acting on its own motion it shall post a detailed
explanation of why such action is necessary or desirable, set a reasonable
time for public comment, and not make a final decision on whether
to create such new Constituency until after reviewing all comments
received. Whenever the Board posts a petition or recommendation for
a new Constituency for public comment, it will notify the names council
and will consider any response to that notification prior to taking
action.
Appendix B – IDNO Charter
Note: This charter is still evolving and parts are still
awaiting ratification (using our electronic voting system) from our
growing membership. Those parts that have been ratified are in bold.
1. Constituency purpose and mission.
1.1 Purpose: to provide representation in the DNSO for
all Domain Name Owners, who do not wish to be classified as non-commercial,
nor wish to be represented by the Business constituency. We will represent
the concerns of individuals rather than organizations.
1.2 Mission: to ensure that Individual Domain Name Owners,
as stakeholders in the DNS, will have a strong say in all new ICANN
rulemaking that will affect their financial interest, on-line freedom
or security of existence.
2. Constituency Name and definition
2.1 The Name “the Cyberspace Association”
will be subjected to a vote by the members as soon as the membership
has passed 100 members.
2.2. The Individual Domain Name Owners Constituency
is requesting the ICANN board to approve it’s membership of the
DNSO in accordance with the US government’s White Paper and allow
it to contribute 3 elected representatives from among its members
to the Names Council of the DNSO.
3. Constituency principles: democracy, transparency,
accountability in all the Constituency’s activities and representations.
Philosophy: freedom of enterprise in the TLD and SLD space.
4. Eligibility and membership.
4.1. IDNO constituency membership is open to any individual
person who can demonstrate “colour of title” to a Domain
name.
4.2. No individual may have more than a single membership
in the IDNO.
4.3. “Colour of title” means enough control
over a domain name that a reasonable person could conclude that such
control constitutes “ownership”. Examples of elements to
be considered may include, and are not limited to, the following:
4.3.1. Whether the candidate is named in domain contact
information.
4.3.2. Whether the candidate’s own funds were used
to pay any registration fees. - Whether the candidate may cause the
domain name to be relinquished.
4.3.3. Whether the candidate may be considered the intended
beneficial owner of a domain name that is registered or operated by
some intermediary.
4.3.4. In the cases of direct control of domain name
by a corporation or other entity, whether that entity’s control
of the domain name is effectively directed by the candidate and subject
to his/her discretion.
4.4. In cases where control of a domain is diffused
among multiple individuals that domain may not be used as a basis
of membership.
4.5. No single domain name may be used to support membership
of more than one individual.
4.6. The domain name used as a basis of membership must
be a Domain Name that is not a top level domain name, nor a reserved
second level Domain name in registries where this level is not open
for individual registration.
4.7. Administrative staff may determine whether a candidate
has presented adequate prima facie evidence of colour of title to
a domain name.
4.8. Disputes about entitlement to membership or entitlement
to candidacy to the Names Council shall be resolved by an elected
membership committee of the IDNO. Such committee shall examine the
totality of the facts and make such decisions as appropriate. The
decisions of such committee are final with regards to basic membership.
With regards to candidature to the Names Council they are open to
appeal to the entire membership, which will decide by majority vote.
4.8.1. The membership committee shall have a minimum
of three members and a maximum of nine.
4.9. Non-Exclusivity - Members associated with other
DNSO constituencies may be members of the IDNO constituency as long
as they meet the eligibility criteria.
4.10. Non-Duplication - Members are subject to the following
voting restrictions:
4.10.1. Any member who is either a voting member, representative
of a voting member, or who effectively controls a voting member in
one or more other constituencies of the DNSO may not vote or stand
for election in the IDNO unless the member, for a period of at least
nine months, waives and does not exercise such voting rights in those
other constituencies.
4.10.2. Any member who has been elected to the Names
Council by another DNSO constituency may not vote or stand for election
in the IDNO during his or her term.
4.11. Loss of membership. Rules with regards to loss
of membership will be drawn up by an elected membership committee
for approval by the general membership. Such rules will assure a Fair
Hearing of all parties. Sole criterion for loss of membership should
be direct action against the best interests of the IDNO or blatant
conflict of interest with the mission and purpose of the IDNO.
5. Nominations. ** to be discussed and approved
5.1. Any member can nominate any other member as a candidate
for a seat on the Names Council.
5.2. The candidate should approve of the nomination
within a reasonable period.
5.3. Self - nomination is not possible.
5.4. In order to be placed on the candidates’ list,
a nominee must secure one vote seconding the nomination.
6. Voting for representatives.
6.1. All Individual members will vote as individuals.
6.2. Owning more than one Domain Name will not give
rights to multiple votes per individual.
6.3. Detailed procedures for voting will be established.
It is envisaged that the system of voting for candidates will take
full advantage of the potential inherent in on-line voting, i.e. each
voter can express a preference-vote for each candidate on a list of
candidates.
6.4. A steering committee will be established of no
less than 5 members and no more than 21, that will be tasked with
drafting the charter of the constituency in more detail and nominating
candidates for committees. The initial steering committee will stand
for re-election after three months. After the initial term, the term
of office will be six months.
6.5. Spokespeople will be those who gain the highest
approval ratings in elections. The total number of spokespeople will
be determined by vote of the steering committee.
7. Elections committee.
7.1. As soon as this is feasible, the membership will
establish an election committee of at least 3 members, who will be
tasked with overseeing all procedures regarding the nomination of
candidates and their election as representatives for the constituency
on the Names Council.
7.2. In the interim, the membership may choose to elect
one election officer, tasked with overseeing the election of the initial
representative(s) to the meeting in Berlin.
8. Using the Internet for procedures. Mailing list.
8.1. Candidates are nominated and accept their nominations
via email to a mailing list to which all members are subscribed.
8.2. Voting will take place on-line, unless 60% of the
membership is physically present in a meeting.
8.3. Verification of on-line votes. The election committee
will have full access to all logs and records generated by the on-line
voting system.
9. On-line decision making. Discussion list , free speech
and moderation.
9.1 All members can participate in policy making discussions
via the all-member mailing list.
9.2 Clearly frivolous postings can be moderated and
postings aimed at disruption of proceedings can be disallowed.
9.3 The will of the majority will find expression in
the decisions of a moderation committee that will be tasked with drafting
and implementing fair rules aimed at maintaining civil discourse and
discouraging abuse of the freedom of speech.
9.4 In principle the members of the moderation committee
can be the members elected to represent the constituency on the Names
Council, but they may stand aside for other elected moderators.
9.5 Members of the election committee will be ineligible
for moderator.
9.6 In these rules the principle of free exchange of
idea’s and opinions will be paramount and procedures for Fair
Hearings and Due Process will form part of any such rules.
9.7 Meeting list. For the purpose of holding formal
meetings, a second list is envisaged. Rules for procedures on this
list, archiving and public record will be drafted in further detail.
10. Funding. Minimal membership fees will be set to
defray the expenses of representation, website- and mailing list hosting
and other expenses related to the necessary functions of the constituency.
The constituency will seek donations from members and other sources
to defray initial expenses.
(end of Petition)
Our
Charter has since been refined to the document you find here,
and ratified by a membership of 191 members on 17 September ,
2000.
