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November 01, 2002

Internet Gov Board Kills Elections

ICANN, the nonprofit board that assigns Internet domain names and directs email traffic across the global, formally voted to eliminate the directly elected seats on the board. Five members had previously been elected by various regions of the world. Many see the move as especially directed at silencing Karl Auerbach, a computer consultant who was directly by North America, and has been a fierce critic of the board:

“It is very much becoming a body that follows the interests of big business,” Auerbach added. He said the group had become an aggressive protector of corporate copyrights on the Internet and was becoming irrelevant to ordinary users.

But Stuart Lynn, chief executive of ICANN, had a statement worthy of Mussolini, on why democracy was dispensable:

“This will make ICANN a much more efficient and effective organization that will get things done better and faster and be more plugged-in to the community than we are now."

Yes, the trains will run on time for the corporate interests protected under ICANN's policies.

See ICANN Watch and ICANN.blog for more.

Posted by Nathan at November 1, 2002 07:55 AM

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