ICANN Issues Blueprint For Reform For Beleaguered Organization

A special committee of the Board of Directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) issued a paper revising prior proposals for self-reform, and outlining why ICANN should continue to exist. On June 20, 2002, the Committee on ICANN Evolution and Reform, led by ICANN Vice Chair Alejandro Pisanty, issued a paper called a "blueprint for reform" that responded to critics’ calls for reform or termination of ICANN and set forth a proposal for the composition and selection of its Board of Directors that removed or glossed over the more controversial aspects of prior proposals by the Committee and by ICANN’s President, M. Stuart Lynn.

Responding to recent criticism from Congress that it had evolved into a supra-national regulatory body without appropriate limits or due process, the June 20 paper recommends restricting ICANN’s policy-making to areas that are "reasonably related" to its technical mission of running the Internet address system, and not regulate