WHEREAS ICANN stakeholders representing general Internet end-users and sovereign states have only been invited to participate in the new gTLD program long after its foundation principles were determined;
WHEREAS most of the problems identified by the ALAC in its Mexico City Summit declaration of February 2009 related to the new-gTLD program have not been satisfactorily addressed and indeed some have worsened;
WHEREAS numerous complaints from sovereign states, intergovernmental organizations and other bodies have indicated that law enforcement and public-protection measures in the current design of the gTLD program are insufficient;
WHEREAS the ICANN Board, without suitable rationale, has rejected the multi-community endorsement of the Joint Applicant Support Working Group recommendations to reduce costs of new gTLD in developing economies independent of any fixed fund;
WHEREAS the absence of a staggered release schedule or a fixed timetable for future rounds severely inhibits ICANN's ability to correct errors and assess unintended consequences in the proposed application round;
and
WHEREAS ICANN has still not convincingly demonstrated the end-user need or benefit of a simultaneous launch of hundreds of new TLDs;
RESOLVED THAT while the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) continues to support in principle the creation of new gTLDs, it must convey to the ICANN Board and community the dismay of At-Large with the new gTLD program in its current form, and explicitly advises that its implementation would be harmful to the public interest and specifically that of Internet end-users. We request that implementation of the program be suspended until necessary public-interest modifications are implemented to address the end-user concerns noted above.
Notes:
The Summit declaration is available at http://www.atlarge.icann.org/files/atlarge/correspondence-05mar09-en.pdf
History:
A draft version of the first motion was submitted by Evan Leibovitch to the ALAC and NARALO email lists December 18.
In response to early comments in response, a slightly modified version of the motion was posted to this Wiki