Domain name dispute body ignores Indian Judges
By Sandhya

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) describes itself as a not for profit public benefit corporation which coordinates the unique computer identifiers across the world. ICANN started life as an American Government instrument but now gets input from more than 100 countries while formulating policies.

ICANN oversees and authorizes the domain registration functions of companies like GoDadday.  It is also tasked with promoting competition and develops policy on the internet’s unique identifiers.

ICANN has accredited the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) to settle any cases of Cyber Squatting.  Being an international organization, the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) has Judges from every continent who hear the plaintiff and defendant before deciding if a website name is being misused. NAF has decided 10 thousand cases in the last decade.

Even though NAF has about 141 Judges, some are exerting more power than others by deciding an unusually large number of cases.  This would be akin to one Judge of the Indian Supreme Court deciding 300 legal cases a year, while his counterparts are handed only 20 disputes to adjudicate.

American legal firm DNAttorney has crunched the numbers and found that one American Carolyn Marks Johnson was asked to judge 966 cases.  Not only did Carolyn decide about 10 percent of the entire website name dispute cases, 97 percent of her judgments were in favour of the complainant. 

Techgoss went through the research by DNAttorney and found that only 2 Indians (out of 141) have been appointed as NAF Judges to this international domain name disputes body.  American has grabbed most of the positions at NAF.

The two Indian Judges on the NAF Panel are Ashwanie Kumar Bansal who was not invited to adjudicate a single case.  Maninder Singh decided only 8 cases – all of which he ruled in the favour of the complainant.

Not surprisingly, most feel that the system is shaky and does not provide justice. How can one American panelist be asked to decide 966 cases while an Indian Judge does not get a single case?

(Techgoss had published the following on March 2, 2010)

Airline ejects ICANN Ombudsman
By Sandhya

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) describes itself as a not for profit public benefit corporation which coordinates the unique computer identifiers across the world. ICANN started life as an American Government instrument but now gets input from more than 100 countries while formulating policies.

ICANN oversees and authorizes the domain registration functions of companies like GoDadday.  It is also tasked with promoting competition and develops policy on the internet’s unique identifiers.

In 2004, ICANN told the media about how it was hiring an ex-Canadian Mountie to ‘Bring law and order to the web’.  ICANN hired former Mountie and UN Peacekeeper Frank Fowlie to become the first Ombudsman of the Internet. At that time ICANN described the 47-year old Frank as a calm, cool ‘conflict resolution’ specialist from Canada.

On March 1, a Canadian newspaper The Ottawa Citizen broke the story about how Frank Fowlie just lost it on a Air Canada flight.

“
Fowlie says he was upset that the attendant forgot to serve him a meal and, after complaining he had waited up to 45 minutes, admits he might have muttered something about "typical Air Canada service."

The flight attendant tells a different story. He claimed Fowlie swore and shouted at him. The attendant said he told Fowlie he would be moved to a different area of the aircraft if he didn't calm down. Fowlie said that the flight attendant threatened to bounce him to coach.

The service director on the flight invited Fowlie to the galley to discuss the problem. The confrontation escalated, and she claimed Fowlie was "physically imposing" and pointed his finger in her face — an allegation he denies.
“

The ICANN Ombudsman has been severely embarrassed after the Canadian Air Transport body rejected his complaints against the airline. Somehow one expected the Ombudsman of an international website body to be a bit calmer and cooler if there is a misunderstanding about a meal.

(Techgoss had published the following story on Feb 13, 2010)

Non Profit ICANN pays huge salaries
By Sandhya

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) describes itself as a not for profit public benefit corporation which coordinates the unique computer identifiers across the world. ICANN started life as an American Government instrument but now gets input from more than 100 countries while formulating policies.

ICANN oversees and authorizes the domain registration functions of companies like GoDadday.  It is also tasked with promoting competition and develops policy on the internet’s unique identifier.

ICANN has no competitors.  It started life as an American organization but has now been accepted as a global body setting some standards.  But is functions are very limited.  As it says on its website ‘ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.’

But it is still under the control of Americans.  So much so that ICANN was asked to appear before the US Congress to explain its actions. Domainnamewire reported in 2009 that the US Congress questioned the ICANN bosses after Verizon complained of Cyber squatting. According to the same report Rep. Cliff Stearns, (R – FL) proceeded to blast ICANN’s financial surplus. He said ICANN should start acting like a non-profit and use excess money to lower costs to registrars and registrants. Stearns continued to berate Twomey, suggesting the current $7M surplus should be used to address cyber squatting or make domain names cheaper for consumers.

So, how much does the non profit ICANN which has no competitors pay its executives? According to its public disclosure document, these guys are paid better than the CIO’s of most businesses even though they only have a fraction of the employees of big computer departments.

The President and Chief Executive Officer Rod Beckstrom was appointed ICANN’s President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as a member of the Board of Directors, effective 1 July 2009. ICANN and Beckstrom entered in to a three year employment agreement effective 1 July 2009. Under the terms of the agreement Beckstrom is paid a base salary of US$750,000 per year, additional at risk compensation of up to US$195,000 per year, and coverage under vacation, health and welfare plans including medical, dental, vision, life insurance and a 401(k) retirement plan as ICANN makes available to its staff.

Chief Operating Officer Mr. Doug Brent was appointed as Chief Operating Officer on 13 December 2006. Brent’s compensation consists of a base salary of US$270,000 per year, a housing allowance of $24,000 per year which is tax neutralized, additional at risk compensation of up to 48 percent of base pay each year, and standard coverage under vacation, health and welfare plans including medical, dental, vision, life insurance and a 401(k) retirement plan as ICANN makes available to its staff.

General Counsel and Secretary Mr. John Jeffrey was appointed as General Counsel and Secretary on 2 September 2003. Jeffrey’s compensation consists of a base salary of US$230,000 per year, additional at risk compensation of up to 30 percent of base pay per year, and standard coverage under vacation, health and welfare plans including medical, dental, vision, life insurance and a 401(k) retirement plan as ICANN makes available to its staff.