(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — In a lengthy hearing held Thursday, members of a House panel criticized the CEO of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (www.icann.org), the group that oversees the assigning of domain names, for the organization’s lack of accountability and its efforts to combat cyber-squatting.
ICANN CEO Paul Twomey, along with representatives from Verisign, Go Daddy, Verizon and the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, testified in front of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet.
Florida Republican Cliff Stearns was particularly vocal about his dissatisfaction for the group, calling for tougher regulations and using its $7 million surplus to ensure the demise of cyber-squatters.
Verizon vice president Sarah Deutsch said that “the practice of assigning a domain name that infringes on someone else’s brand name is willingly enabled by the same registrars that have operating contracts with ICANN.
Throughout the hearing, Twomey, who is planning to step down as CEO of ICANN by the year’s end, defended ICANN and its internal system for resolving conflicts.
He added that the organization is continually improving its protections for intellectual property.
ICANN will soon close its operating agreement with the US government, and many individuals in the Internet community have their own opinions on how the group should be organized from this point on.
Since it launched in 1998, ICANN has operated under an agreement with the Department of Commerce. With the joint project agreement expiring on September 30, the representatives at Thursday’s hearing were all in favor for the agreement to continue.
Though Twomey said he would like to maintain ICANN’s current structure as a nonprofit, private entity based in the US, he said the organization should discontinue an end to the renewing and revising temporary agreement cycle that has been in place between ICANN and the US government for more than a decade.
On the other hand, the representatives and several witnesses alongside Twomey believed that ICANN has not adequately served the stakeholders it was created to support, and that it would be a critical mistake if it ended the temporary renewing and revising agreement cycle when the JPA expires.
Go Daddy’s general counsel and corporate secretary Christine N. Jones said “it is essential for both international commerce and the security and stability of the Internet that the relationship between the NTIA and ICANN continue.”
The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration is also taking into account the public’s input on how to proceed with ICANN through Monday.
Meanwhile, ICANN announced on Wednesday that it will work with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and National Institute of Standards and Technology to enhance web security and stability.
The organizations will collaborate to come up with an interim plan in place by the end of the year to implement security technology at the authoritative root zone.
