[Chapter-delegates] FW: Ethos/PIR/ISoc statements regarding ICANN's rejection of the sale of PIR/.ORG

[Andrew Sullivan]

Dear colleagues,

Richard informed me off-list that this message here was not merely a
report of a message on another list, but in fact a request to be
answered on this list.  So I will.

On Fri, May 01, 2020 at 09:46:38AM +0200, Richard Hill via Chapter-delegates wrote:

> 1) ISOC states: "we are disappointed that ICANN has acted as a regulatory body it was never meant to be, as laid out in Article 1 of its bylaws"
> 
> Who made this interpretation of ICANN's mandate? Shouldn't such an interpretation, in this context, have been consulted with the membership?
> 

I am surprised that it should be in any way controversial that ICANN
was never meant to be a regulatory body.  The Article 1 text is this:

	(c) ICANN shall not regulate (i.e., impose rules and restrictions
	on) services that use the Internet's unique identifiers or the
	content that such services carry or provide, outside the express
	scope of Section 1.1(a). For the avoidance of doubt, ICANN does
	not hold any governmentally authorized regulatory authority.

I don't believe we have a policy requiring any statement by the
Internet Society to be made in consultation with members.  That is a
requirement for policies, of course, under the PDP.  But I do not
believe the above qualifies as a policy statement in that way.

> 2) ISOC states: "We stand by our decision in favor of the transaction".
> 
> Is this the Board's view? Does this mean that the Board has rejected the advice recently submitted to it by the Chapters Advisory Council?

The Board saw this statement before it was published.  It does not
mean the Board has rejected any advice, no.
 
> Wouldn't it have been better if there had been a consultation with the membership before stating that ISOC still stands in favor of the transaction?
> 

It does not state that.  It say that it stands by the decision, which
was in favor of the transaction.

Best regards,

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
President & CEO, Internet Society
sullivan at isoc.org
+1 416 731 1261