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back to article 'ICANN's general counsel should lose his job over this'

It has been four years since Shaul Jolles, as CEO of Dot Registry, filed applications for five new internet extensions – .corp, .inc, .llc, .llp and .ltd – and wrote a check for just under $1m to have them considered by domain name system overseer ICANN. Unlike the other applicants for the three US corporate entity suffixes . …

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  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "Maybe I'm naïve, but I hope they do the right thing."

    Just one question : when has ICANN ever done the right thing ?

    ICANN has a long history of publishing rules for the peons and then doing whatever they decide they want. Even the US government got told "shove off" when it tried to argue that ICANN has to respect something.

    You think you've got a chance ?

    I'll be following your time in court with great interest.

    16 0 Reply
    1. Bucky 2
      Reply Icon

      Re: "Maybe I'm naïve, but I hope they do the right thing."

      I'm not sure I even understand how this complaint is materially different from the vast tonnage of similar complaints against ICANN over the years.

      Unless this independent review actually has the power to compel some kind of action, I don't see how anything would come of this particular complaint, all of a sudden.

      4 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "Maybe I'm naïve, but I hope they do the right thing."

        > I'm not sure I even understand how this complaint is materially different from the vast tonnage of similar complaints against ICANN over the years.

        I suppose the difference in this case is that there is an aggrieved party who has been severely financially disadvantaged by ICANN's behaviour (something courts actually understand, as opposed to "they don't play nicely"), and that someone furthermore has the financial resources to pursue a remedy in court.

        Plus, as he says, this is a fairly critical moment in time for ICANN—which *might* make them buck up...

        3 0 Reply
        1. Yes Me Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: "Maybe I'm naïve, but I hope they do the right thing."

          > an aggrieved party who has been severely financially disadvantaged

          Only disadvantaged in the fantasy world where registrars are entitled to rake in profits from utterly pointless domain names. Morally, they have no such entitlement - those profits are entirely parasitic. Being aggrieved because somebody won't grant you the right to be a parasite doesn't get any sympathy from me. But actually there's plenty of Schadenfreude to go around - have a laugh at DOT for not getting their cosy monopoly, have a laugh at ICANN for experiencing the downside of its absurd capitalist expansion of ASCII domain names.

          3 7 Reply
          1. A nosy macro wound
            Reply Icon

            Re: "Maybe I'm naïve, but I hope they do the right thing."

            > Only disadvantaged in the fantasy world where registrars are entitled to rake in profits from utterly pointless domain names.

            No, disadvantaged in the very real world where he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars under a contract in consideration of which ICANN had promised (explicitly or implicitly) to deal with his application fairly—a contractual promise that they have unquestionably breached.

            I very much doubt the courts would care to hear argument about the merits of his application, or the consequential losses ("profits from utterly pointless domain names") he might have suffered: like the IRP, their concern will probably rest entirely on the question of whether the process was conducted properly.

            1 0 Reply
  2. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    Why bother?

    ICANN has sold a lot of new domains but I have yet to see anything other than vanity use. If there's a real use for them I have yet to see it - I think he should count himself lucky to have gotten his money back and go and find some better investment.

    I'd admit that I do find some of the new domains useful - it makes blocking them at the mail server so much easier, I can just add "blacklist_from *.accountant" and "blacklist_from *.click" to get rid of each one. This reduces the spam load quite nicely.

    7 1 Reply
  3. The Man Who Fell To Earth Silver badge
    Black Helicopters

    ICANN is an example

    If you staff an organization with 3rd worlders, you'll get an organization rife with 3rd world corruption.

    Follow the money. Start looking at personal bank accounts & life styles of ICANN personnel & family members.

    5 4 Reply
    1. Alan Brown Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: ICANN is an example

      "Start looking at personal bank accounts & life styles of ICANN personnel & family members."

      And ex-ICANN heads. Particularly the ones who moved on to DNS registry companies and have a long, documented history of the kind of shenanigans detailed in the article well before they came to ICANN.

      8 0 Reply
    2. Gordon 10
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Re: ICANN is an example

      @TheMan

      Regardless of the validity of the rest of your points maybe you should actually check the makeup of the ICANN board before indulging in your casual racism and/or ignorance.

      The vast majority are resolutely first world. Even the Egyptian guy is a British citizen. I can't think of any country that holds the moral high ground on corruption.

      https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/icann/advisors

      8 1 Reply
    3. MotionCompensation
      Reply Icon

      Re: ICANN is an example

      Correction: ICANN is an example of what happens when first worlders believe corruption is a third world thing.

      11 1 Reply
  4. Down not across

    'ICANN's general counsel should lose his job over this'

    Not just general counsel. BGC as well. In fact it would probably best if the whole rotten excuse for an organisation would just get dissolved completely as it is not fit for purpose at all.

    8 1 Reply
    1. Yes Me Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: 'ICANN's general counsel should lose his job over this'

      > the whole rotten excuse for an organisation

      That's very unfair to the IANA staff who do a great job day in and day out. It's the capitalist side of ICANN that is rotten; they should never have started the gTLD expansion except on a genuine non-profit basis for the public good.

      0 4 Reply
      1. Terry Cloth
        Reply Icon
        Stop

        IANA != ICANN (yet)

        That's very unfair to the IANA staff who do a great job day in and day out.
        Am I wrong that IANA's still independent of ICANN?

        This is an example of why the U.S. gov't shouldn't turn IANA over to ICANN—it would be only the work of a week for ICANN to ditch the good folks at IANA, and turn it into another corrupt arm of ICANN. So far as I can see, ICANN is the organizational equivalent of Donald Trump.

        2 1 Reply
        1. Len
          Reply Icon

          Re: IANA != ICANN (yet)

          I believe both should move under the International Telecommunication Union (http://www.itu.int), they have been doing this role for the telecoms world since 1865 (starting with the telegraph!) and it stands to reason the internet is just another evolution from the telegraph.

          3 0 Reply
  5. Billy K

    and what else lies beneath?

    unfortunately i don't think much of this comes as a surprise anymore. having followed the .gay case closely I do believe that it will be in the icann boards best interest to correct the hideous mistreatment of that application at their first opportunity. doing so would at least avoid having an independent review uncover even more egregious behavior of the eiu & staff that has plagued that case for what solely appears to be some level of discrimination or financial gain. if they don't it just further suggests that board members are for sale. no string seemed more fitting for community status than .gay and to subject the community to such extraordinary scrutiny of its members has been gruesome to watch.

    0 0 Reply

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