Massive Conflict Of Interests In ICANN Called Out By CEO, Start To Get Some Attention

Failures

from the the-system-is-broken dept

Fri, Mar 23rd 2012 3:39pm — Mike Masnick

We've noted what a joke ICANN has been for quite some time, culminating with some of its more bizarre decisions to help governments seize domains and censor the internet. Separately, its sense of entitlement towards its role managing domain registrations is really pretty disgusting. Of course, for years we've also discussed its ridiculous policy of rolling out new top level domains whose sole purpose appeared to be to transfer money from companies to registrars.

At a recent ICANN meeting, however, outgoing ICANN boss Rod Beckstrom (who we had hoped would clean up ICANN back when he took the job) blasted his own organization for the massive conflicts of interest that have made the organization almost entirely ineffectual when it comes to doing anything for the public's benefit.

"I believe it is time to further tighten up the rules that have allowed perceived conflicts to exist within our board," Mr. Beckstrom said in a speech during an Icann meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica, last week. "This is necessary, not just to be responsive to the growing chorus of criticism about Icann's ethics environment, but to ensure that absolute dedication to the public good supersedes all other priorities."

In fact, it looks like the conflicts are even worse than originally discussed, with a significant number of top people being closely tied to registrars directly, such that their positions are heavily influenced by what makes registrars the most money rather than what's best for the public or the internet as a whole. Isn't it time to just start over again from scratch, rather than letting this farce continue?

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: conflicts, icann, rod beckstrom
Companies: icann

18 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 23 Mar 2012 @ 3:50pm

money has always been more influential than the public. it aint gonna change now. like the entertainment industries, the ICANN guys will fight tooth and nail to maintain the hold they at least think they've got
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jeffrey, 23 Mar 2012 @ 4:21pm

Ah, well then...
Don't be surprised if the CEO is mysteriously replaced soon for calling things out. Board directors don't like it when the CEO does crazy talk. (See Movie Reference: Iron Man)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 23 Mar 2012 @ 4:27pm

Yarrrrr! Pirate Mike wants to overthrow ICANN. LMAO!!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Wendy Cockcroft (profile), 23 Mar 2012 @ 4:30pm

Has anyone seen this? http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000787.html

Tech blogger Laurent Weinstein has put forward a solution and we need some debate on this. Can it work? Would it work? If so, when do we start?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
MrWilson, 23 Mar 2012 @ 4:30pm

Re: Ah, well then...
You missed the part where Mike mentioned that this CEO is outgoing, as in leaving, rather than being social.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 23 Mar 2012 @ 4:34pm

sounds like certain political organisations or politicians; take a position that is supposedly to serve the public; then create policy or laws that mostly benefit yourself financially.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
BeeAitch (profile), 23 Mar 2012 @ 4:36pm

Re:
Pointing out conflicts of interest within an organization now equals overthrow?

Gotcha...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Nerd, 23 Mar 2012 @ 4:38pm

I smell a Corporate Civil War
What happens when Big Film Business does something like this, before attacking us, they try to censor each other out, then destroy themselves?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Suja (profile), 23 Mar 2012 @ 4:46pm

Re:
.............. How do people manage to come up with some stuff that neither makes sense nor fits the subject? It's like they throw a bunch of keywords into a hat with some insults and pick out a few.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Mighty Buzzard (profile), 23 Mar 2012 @ 5:06pm

Re: Re:
Trolling via madlibs... I like it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Gwiz (profile), 23 Mar 2012 @ 5:31pm

Re:
Yarrrrr! Pirate Mike wants to overthrow ICANN. LMAO!!

It must be Friday. The trolls are drunk early.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 23 Mar 2012 @ 8:02pm

"At a recent ICANN meeting, however, outgoing ICANN boss Rod Beckstrom (who we had hoped would clean up ICANN back when he took the job) blasted his own organization for the massive conflicts of interest that have made the organization almost entirely ineffectual when it comes to doing anything for the public's benefit."

Sounds mostly like he didn't get the job done, is going away, and has sour grapes because he couldn't get people to do it all his way.

Good riddance!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 23 Mar 2012 @ 8:38pm

Re: Re:
They're celebrating the MPAA's new year of more record-breaking profits. Doesn't stop them from insisting the devastation from piracy though.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chargone (profile), 23 Mar 2012 @ 9:07pm

Re:
well, 'cept when the public is
A) armed
and
B) right there.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 Mar 2012 @ 7:12am

Response to: Anonymous Coward on Mar 23rd, 2012 @ 8:02pm
No. It sounds like the organization has become infiltrated with people who would rather look out for greedy special interests for their own personal benefit over the best interests of the general public contrary to the principles on which the creation of the Internet was founded. This is similar to the situation we have in Congress.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
PSC, 24 Mar 2012 @ 8:38am

As a private sector multi-stakeholder organization that only exercices power via contract ICANN has inevitable potential for conflict, both on its Board and in its internal policymaking process, as parties potentially affected by its policies get to shape and vote on them. That said, it's still better than an ITU takeover of the DNS that would put governments in the driver's seat and push aside NGOs, business, and entrepreneurs with a real understanding of the system.

ICANN has conceded that its ethics/conflicts policy is in need of major revamping and is moving to do so. Anyone can comment and participate in that process -- so do so if you care about this, and think about what comes after ICANN if it is junked rarher than reformed.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ninja (profile), 26 Mar 2012 @ 4:22am

We need a decentralized system for the same urls. You'd need a coordinated action to take down domains and this would only be done if due process was followed. Even if the US in its sense of entitlement decided to take, ie., Rojadirecta offline, it would only happen on their DNS system. Since the system is distributed, most browsers would go for the overall DNS activity, ignoring the single one that presents the domain as another IP. This would force the US Govt to follow due process and get it seized on the majority of the DNS servers. Something they wouldn't succeed in Rojadirecta's or Daja1z cases.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2013 @ 1:12pm

Re:
That is one of the problems. ITU is horrible in how they act at the wim of the "traditional values" countries (Traditional values is basically a talking point like "omg child abuse, piracy, terrorism" used to justify censorship). However, there is a need of a system with more neutral bonds and even though ITU failed, most european politicians want ICANN to assume international status. Some of the countries to assure control of its process and others to avoid the current corruption and preferrential treatment of selective US interests.
[ link to this | view in thread ]