Re: Johnson, Farber, Maher and Cochetti

[Karl Auerbach <karl at CaveBear.com>]

> Representation and control are the two issues that 
> still need some work.  In fact, there is very little
> in that document that addresses the evolution of the
> new IANA, Inc., nor its relationship to the other
> coordinated functions (technical standards, IP 
> allocation and Root Server operations).
> 
> This concerns me greatly.

There is also the issue that the proposed (or I expect it will be
proposed) corporation will cover both address allocation and DNS.

The constituancies of these are rather different, with different "business
models" and with different technical concerns.
 
> Secondly, I am also concerned that too much weight
> is being given to domain name owners

I agree with that.  I consider that there should be some means to give a
voice to those who simply use the net or those who may someday want to
create a 2nd level domain inside a TLD.

Also, many domain name holders [those who have domain names that match
their trademarks] have a vested interest in preventing the domain name
system from being overlayed with a real directory lookup system.

We don't want to create an institution which has a built-in resistance to
technical advancements in which DNS simply becomes a stable middle name
layer between directory systems and actual host addresses.

> While I am certainly no expert in these matters, we
> do have an extremely successful model that balances
> the interests of the "public" with the interests of
> the "propertied" -- it's known as the U.S. Constitution.

Don't underrate you knowledge.  You've got a lot of good ideas and
experience in these matters.
 
Don't get me going on US Constitutional law and history, it's one of my
favorite subjects ;-) 

But one of my favorite phrases about the United States Constitution is
that from the international perspective "it is merely domestic law".

We ought to not lose sight of the fact that the Internet is truely
international in scope and that nations other than the United States have
a legitimate interest, and ability, to also regulate the net.  And we need
to take care not to inhibit the eventual coelescing of these regulations
into a consistant whole. 

		--karl--