MICHAEL GEIST
Thursday, October 26, 2000
In the midst of a federal election campaign, most Canadians are probably not interested in still another vote. Yet with significant Internet policy developments under way, an election is just what Canada's Internet community needs.
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), the agency responsible for administering the dot-ca domain, has been extremely active in recent months preparing and implementing massive reforms to the system. Over the past six months alone, CIRA has conducted a public consultation on dispute resolution and Canadian presence requirements; reached agreement on the transfer of the dot-ca database from the University of British Columbia; drafted lengthy documents governing domain name registrars and registrants; accredited over 36 domain name registrars; released a draft domain name dispute resolution policy; and started the process of reregistering thousands of dot-ca domains.
Yet many of CIRA's actions extend beyond mere technical administration and constitute important policy decisions. With CIRA having an appointed rather than elected board, the Canadian public is not given a say in who makes these important decisions.
CIRA's bylaws say that an election must be held each year, with the chairperson setting the exact date. A perfect time for a first election would be after the dust has settled from the move to competitive domain name registration.
Recent elections conducted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organization that administers generic top-level domains such as dot-com, dot-org, and dot-net, exemplifies the importance of a public electoral process. These elections attracted thousands of voters, and generated considerable media coverage and debate over key Internet policy issues.
Perhaps most importantly, successful candidates from both North America and Europe ran on platforms that challenged the ICANN status quo. Their victories suggest significant public disenchantment with ICANN and a widespread interest in reform.
CIRA's bylaws prescribe how its elections should be conducted. Unlike the ICANN elections, which granted anyone in the world the right to become an at-large member and vote for a regional director, the CIRA election will be restricted to CIRA members. Membership involves simply owning a dot-ca domain.
The CIRA board has 10 members, of which seven are to be publicly elected by CIRA members. The remaining spots are reserved for three specific groups -- commercial Internet interests, registrars, and Internet users.
Similar to the ICANN elections, where a nominating committee created a slate of nominees, CIRA bylaws also say a nominating committee is to identify suitable candidates. People not on the nominating committee list maybe included on the ballot with the support of 10 CIRA members.
The CIRA election may take some time, so the current board must continue to forge ahead on many critical dot-ca issues and work to protect the public interest. Dot-ca reform has already taken too long. Additional delays now would do more harm than good.
The board should first continue the practice of conducting public consultations on important policy issues. These consultations provide all Canadians with an opportunity to help craft final policies.
Second, it should place limits all major policy initiatives -- such as the domain name dispute resolution process -- until an elected board has an adequate opportunity to reconsider the policy.
The current CIRA board has worked tirelessly to reform the dot-ca domain process so Canadians can acquire a genuine Canadian Web presence quickly and cheaply. It should now launch a public election to legitimize its work.
Michael Geist is a law professor at the University of Ottawa Law School, director of e-commerce law at the law firm Goodman Phillips & Vineberg, and the author of Internet Law in Canada (Captus). He can be reached at http://www.lawbytes.com, or at mgeist@uottawa.ca.
