[FreeDNS] fw: Govt, Namespace find compromise on .za

["Jean Jordaan" <jean@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hmm, coulda been worse ..

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Govt, Namespace find compromise on .za

BY PHILLIP DE WET, ITWEB NEWS EDITOR

READ IN THIS STORY:

 Namespace cautious
 Mike Lawrie wants compromise
 No domain tax



[Johannesburg, 4 June 2002] - The struggle for control over the .za suffix
for Internet addresses may be over, having reached a climax this week after
months of low-level tussling.

Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Communications completed its
deliberations on the Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) Bill
near midnight last night, and the final document contains what all parties
characterise as a compromise on Chapter 10, the controversial domain name
authority provision.

In terms of the amended version of the chapter, a section 21 company named
"The ZA Domain Authority" will take over the South African top-level domain.
A board of nine will govern the company, which is effectively a regulator
much like the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA).

The board members will be selected from public nominations by a panel of
five people "who command public respect for their fair-mindedness, wisdom
and understanding of issues concerning the Internet, culture, language,
academia and business". The minister of communications will appoint the
panel.

The minister must approve and appoint the board members recommended by her
panel, and must approve the rules the board decides on.

Membership of the authority will be open to the public for a nominal fee, as
is the case with Namespace South Africa, but there will be no elections for
representatives of the membership.

Namespace cautious

"It was quite an interesting debate," says Andile Ngcaba, director-general
of the Department of Communications. "I am happy that we and the Namespace
guys could find agreement. The two sides came together and compromised and
agreed as South Africans. We will work together going forward."

Namespace, the body formed to take control over the .za suffix, is less
happy with the result but agrees that it is better than the proposal in the
original draft of the ECT Bill, which would have given government a far
greater degree of control.

"It is a lot better than it was," says Namespace chairman Mike Silber. "We
are concerned that democracy has been thrown out of the window in the name
of representation."

He is concerned that control of the authority would still rest with the
minister, but could not comment on the board appointment process before
seeing the final wording of the Bill.

However, he welcomes changes that denied the minister the right to make
technical regulations on the handling of the domain name system, and the
removal of references to ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers, to which SA would have been "subjugated".

"It may be we can live with it," he says.

Mike Lawrie wants compromise

Current administrator Mike Lawrie is equally cautious but welcomes the move
to compromise.

"From what I can make out, from the reports I've had, it sounds as though
there has been a distinct improvement," he says. "The fact that there was
movement is a good sign."

Lawrie is still the officially recognised administrator of .za. He has
control of the domain zone file but voluntary consults with Namespace in
running it on a day-to-day basis. For the new government entity to take
control, he would have to agree to re-delegate this responsibility.

He recently resigned as co-chairman of Namespace, a body formed at his
insistence, but he remains a board member.

Lawrie agrees with Ngcaba that a single individual should not be running
.za.

"One must collect wisdom in things like this; one must have the technical
expertise, but it is very invidious for one individual to say who can
administer [the second level domain] .co.za or that there won't be a .law.za
domain."

Like Namespace, he concurs that government must be involved in the running
of the country's Internet designation, but like the organisation, he would
like to see control remain in the hands of Internet users.

"I agree totally that government has to be involved, but control, no."

But should the proposed authority board be truly independent from government
and not under the control of the minister of communications, he says he
would consider serving on it if asked.

No domain tax

The compromise was not a political one: Democratic Alliance member of
Parliament Vincent Gore says his party voted against it "on the basis that
there was still far to much ministerial control, particularly in the making
of regulations and the appointment of the panel".

But he confirms that the final version represents a compromise on the part
of the Department of Communications.

Ngcaba says the control that the government will have, if a successful
re-delegation is completed, will not be used to impose a tax on the use of
.za domain names, as many Internet users fear. It will, however, push for
representation.

"How many languages do we have in this country? We need all those languages
on the Internet," he says. All second-level domains (such as .co.za or
.gov.za) are based on English, he contends, and that must change. "We have
to have second level domains in Afrikaans, in Zulu, in Sotho, in the other
languages."

Ngcaba disagrees with Namespace that a lack of elections means a lack of
democracy, arguing that there are many people in SA not organised enough to
take part in such elections, except at great cost to the state, but which
will have a future interest in the domain system.

--
Jean Jordaan
Upfront Systems                         http://www.upfrontsystems.co.za

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