By Kieren McCarthy in Vancouver for The Register
This article has been reproduced from The Register, with
permission.
ICANN chairman Vint Cerf stunned an open meeting of the
governmental advistory committee (GAC) in Vancouver late on Tuesday
when he announced that the whole issue had been pulled from the
Board meeting agenda where it had been the first topic of
discussion.
The reason given (this time) was that the GAC needed time to
review a 350-page ICANN report on the domain's feasibility before
it could provide its approval (or disapproval).
That's a red herring though. The report was completed on 31
August, and is mostly complimentary about the proposed domain. Not
only that but all the issues surrounding the domain are already
well known to everyone involved, and up until Cerf's sudden
announcement, had been effectively given the green light.
ICANN has come under pressure to release the report and so
provide adequate excuse for delaying .xxx's approval yet again. The
people behind .xxx, ICM Registry, opposed its release, complaining
that no other new domains had had their ICANN report released
before they had been granted final approval and that they were
being unfairly treated.
However, if rumours are to be believed, ICANN took a top-level
decision to release the report and so provide a delay excuse, after
EU commissioner Viviane Reding called the head of ICANN Paul Twomey
direct and threatened to withdraw all the EU's representatives
unless the issue was pulled. Twomey this morning denied he had had
any communication with Reding over the issue.
If would certainly be an unusual decision on Reding's part,
especially since the EU has been mostly supportive of .xxx. It is
only Brazil and the US administration that remain opposed to the
domain.
More likely is that the US government intervened but is
desperate to avoid being seen to do so because of the ongoing
Internet governance conflict, where the US government retains
unilateral control of the Internet but claims never to use apply
it.
The Bush administration has been very effectively lobbied by the
Christian right, and the US is desperate to make it look as though
other governments are equally concerned about .xxx. The conspiracy
theory is that by delaying .xxx, the EU puts a spotlight on the US'
attempts to sway the course of the Internet.
Whether that's true or not, it still leaves one furious owner of
ICM Registry, Stuart Lawley, who has sunk millions into the project
and been consistently stymied at the last minute by unusual
delays.
© The Register
2005
