Re: New York Post Editorial: "Yes, ICANN"

[Peter Deutsch <peterd at videotron.ca>]

Hi Bob,


braden at ISI.EDU wrote:
> 
> Good show, Ron.  Just what we need... using the ICANN, and our
> Internet, as a partisan political football.  Sheesh!!! Have you
> no ethical sense?

I don't believe I've ever met Ron Lautmann but given that this list is
supposed to nominally keep things focussed on technical discussion and
factual discussions relevant to the IETF I was a little disturbed to see
you jump straight to the name-calling.

In rereading Mr. Lautmann's message I saw several statements which I
can't guarantee are true (eg. "The Clinton administration is now trying
to sink the Internet into the ethical morass in which it is so deeply
mired." and "The freewheeling libertarians who dominate the Internet's
policy debates were outraged.") I suspect the first is more in the
nature of a political opinion. The later may or may not be true but I've
never seen a trustworthy survey of participants in this debate that
support or denies the claim.

On the other hand I can't say I saw any statements in Mr. Lautmann's
posting which I knew to be factually untrue, either and this makes the
whole posting more in the nature of another entry into the ongoing
political debate over ICANN and Internet governance. For that, it might
be reasonable to chastize him for an inappropriate posting on this list.
Yaweh knows we have enough of those, so such a chastisement may be in
order.

But "partisan political football"? "No ethical sense"? This just calls
out for reply from those who disagree with your characterization of
ICANN and the ongoing debate over DNS and the relevance of the
governance debate to the IETF. Talk about opening a can of worms! If I
were you, I'd have had another cup of coffee before sending something
out on this.

So, rather than reply to the specific charges of either posting (and
yes, I'd certainly like to) I'd instead respectfully submit that you
think about whether you'd really like to see this thread on this list.
I've the name of other lists which are generating 100's of messages a
day on this topic, and would respectfully suggest it might be better off
there, leaving this list for its mandated purposes.

Pointers to followup locations available on request...


					- peterd