May 11, 2006

ICANN, Secrecy, And Gagged Directors

ICANN has never had a keen grasp of the laws that define how corporations work - I had to sue ICANN when it tried to block me, a director, from inspecting its financial records despite the law that clearly gave me the "absolute right to inspect and copy" corporate records. I won - it was a slam dunk, the judge nearly laughed ICANN out of court.

Yet we now have learned that ICANN's current crop of directors feel compelled by ICANN's rules to remain silent until ICANN's staff collects, collates, and edits director statements.  This despite the fact that ICANN's staff held a press conference about exactly the same matter on which the directors were being gagged!

Even those directors who are attorneys and who ought to know better feel constrained by ICANN's gag rule.

It's time for ICANN's board, and its directors to get a clue.  I have long recommended that the board get its own legal counsel and that each individual director consult with his/her own legal counsel.

Maybe we'd then get some directors who understand that they don't need to accept the nonesense that comes from ICANN's staff and elder directors.

Oh, you might say, there's nothing wrong with a wait for a couple of days.  But there is something very wrong - it means that those directors who were in the minority will not have their points of view picked up by the media: Only the majority will make the news cycle.  And that, in turn, only increases the ICANN's hubris.

Posted by karl at May 11, 2006 11:25 PM