ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé’s planned March 2016 departure is unlikely to derail the ongoing Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition process, but it has the potential to have a minor impact and further politicize the process, U.S. stakeholders told us Friday. Chehadé said Thursday he plans to depart ICANN for work in the private sector but will continue to help ICANN transition to a new CEO and advise the non-profit on ICANN-related issues like the IANA transition. NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling expressed confidence Thursday that the IANA transition wouldn’t be affected by Chehadé’s departure, saying the transition “does not depend on the leadership of a single individual” (see 1505210053).
Most ICANN stakeholders said the ICANN Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) stewardship cross-community working group’s (CWG-Stewardship) revised draft proposal for an IANA transition plan is an improvement on the group’s initial proposal, in comments, but some stakeholders also urged ICANN to hold another comment period because they considered the initial period too brief. The revised CWG-Stewardship proposal, released in late April, would recommend ICANN create a legally separate subsidiary tentatively named the Post-Transition IANA (PTI) to handle IANA functions post-transition. An ICANN-selected board would govern PTI, while the Customer Standing Committee (CSC) and the IANA Function Review Team (IFRT) would handle current federal oversight functions. The proposal would allow PTI to completely separate from ICANN at a later date (see 1504270053 and 1504280060). Comments on the revised CWG-Stewardship proposal were due Wednesday, but ICANN said it extended the comment deadline for non-English-speaking stakeholders until Tuesday because it had delayed the release of translated versions of the revised proposal.
The House Appropriations Committee cleared an FY 2016 $51.4 billion budget Wednesday for the Department of Commerce and several other federal departments and agencies. It includes a provision that would bar NTIA from using its funding “to relinquish” its responsibility for domain name systems functions via the planned spinoff of its oversight over the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions. The committee-passed FY 2016 Commerce budget would give the department $8.2 billion -- $250 million below its FY 2015 budget and $1.6 billion below the department’s FY 2016 funding request. NTIA would receive $35.2 million under the proposed budget, below the $49.2 million it originally requested. The National Institute of Standards and Technology would receive $855 million -- $9 million less than its FY 2015 budget (see 1505130047).
Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, said he's backing the newest iteration of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization (STR) Act to include provisions aimed at jump-starting new U.S. innovation in the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) in highway travel and other transportation systems. The House was set Tuesday to vote on a two-month extension (HR-2353) of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, the current authorization of federal highway and other surface transportation programs. The extension is meant to be a stop-gap while the House irons out details of a hoped-for bipartisan compromise on reauthorization, Farenthold said during an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation event. The House hadn't voted on the extension by our deadline.
ICANN’s process of spinning off U.S. federal government oversight of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions and legislation like the USA Freedom Act are dominating the public debate over how to regain public trust in the Internet’s integrity, but broader debates will have a more lasting effect on the Internet’s future, industry experts said Monday. Congress is continuing to scrutinize ICANN’s planning of the IANA transition (see 1505130061) during ICANN’s public comment period on a proposed transition plan and proposed improvements to ICANN’s accountability to stakeholders. Efforts to reform domestic surveillance authorities at the NSA and other U.S. intelligence agencies shift to the Senate this week, where a Senate version of the USA Freedom Act (S-1123) could get a vote. The House passed its version of the bill (HR-2048) on a 338-88 vote last week (see 1505130054). Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is continuing to push for reauthorization of the controversial Patriot Act Section 215.
Upcoming U.S. Copyright Office hearings in Los Angeles and Washington are likely to at least partially clarify how the CO will proceed in its consideration of 27 proposed exemptions to Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201, stakeholders in the DMCA exemption proceedings said in interviews this week. The CO has been reviewing the 27 proposed exemptions as part of its sixth triennial review rulemaking process for Section 1201. The section prohibits the circumvention of technological protection measures. A final round of replies on the proposed exemptions was due earlier this month (see 1505050051 and 1505080051).
The House Commerce Committee is working on compromise language to amend the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) Act (HR-805) in a way that will reflect bipartisan consensus on how to ensure ICANN proceeds effectively in its transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. That subcommittee and the IP Subcommittee examined the IANA transition as part of separate ICANN-related hearings Wednesday (see 1505120045).
Stakeholders’ perception of ICANN's development of plans for the anticipated spinoff of its Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions is expected to be the dominant topic during two ICANN-related House hearings Wednesday, though other recent ICANN-related controversies are set for debate, lawmakers and others told us. ICANN’s IANA transition and the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) Act (HR-805), which would prohibit NTIA from approving ICANN’s IANA transition plan until the GAO completes a study of the plan, are the sole focus at a 2 p.m. House Communications Subcommittee hearing. Vox Populi Registry’s pricing of domains within the new generic top-level domain .sucks and questions about ICANN’s oversight ability in light of the IANA transition are expected to dominate a 10 a.m. House IP Subcommittee hearing (see 1505070037).
The ICANN cross-community working group on ICANN accountability’s (CCWG-Accountability) draft accountability proposal is meant to take ICANN oversight powers that have traditionally been in the NTIA’s bailiwick and “hand them over” to ICANN community stakeholders, said CCWG-Accountability Co-Chairman Thomas Richert during an ICANN webinar Monday. The CCWG-Accountability proposal, released last week, is being developed in concert with work at the ICANN Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) stewardship working group (CWG-Stewardship) on an IANA transition plan (see 1505060067). The current CCWG-Accountability draft proposal doesn’t reflect the full working group consensus, which CCWG-Accountability Co-Chair Mathieu Weill also noted during the webinar.
The Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) and TracFone jointly filed a revision with the U.S. Copyright Office that would alter a proposed exemption to Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201 (DMCA) for unlocking cellphones to resolve TracFone’s concerns about the exemption’s original language. The exemption is one of 27 the CO is currently considering as part of its sixth triennial rulemaking process for Section 1201, which prohibits the circumvention of technological protection measures (TPMs). Other proposed exemptions include one that would allow smart TV owners to circumvent TPMs that prevent the installation of user-supplied software and one that would allow for circumventing DVD, Blu-ray and digital video TPMs for personal uses. Comments on the proposed exemptions, which were due May 1, were limited to responses to previous filings. New America's Open Technology Institute told CO in comments given to us before they appeared online that a proposed exemption on software security research should move forward (see 1505050051).