Hasn't it been said that ICANN should be there to keep governments from taking over the Internet? So ICANN created the GACC http://www.icann.org/committees/gac/ which is the committee where governments get to tell ICANN what they want it to do. (Tony Rutkowskii had a field day roasting ICANN when it did that.) The Australian Government allegedly paid for the GACs expenses from 1999 onward. But now ICANN has decided to reimburse one of its governments (the australian) for the cost of maintaining the very group that ICANN was allegedly created to protect the internet from. Thus we have http://www.icann.org/minutes/prelim-report-13aug02.htm There ICANN informs the rest of us. Resolved [EC02.8] that the President is authorized to provide reimbursement to the Australian Government for its actual costs of providing chair and secretariat services to the GAC, in a total amount not to exceed US$75,000, for the period ending 15 November 2002, after which alternative arrangements by the GAC to provide these functions can be implemented. Want to find out what the GAC wants ICANN to do? Lots of luck. Only governments allowed to attend THOSE meetings. "the value of trust" (TM) - oh but wait, that's Verisign's trademark. What was it Stef said about Stuart Lynn and company heading for the cliffs? -- ======================================================== The COOK Report on Internet, 431 Greenway Ave, Ewing, NJ 08618 USA (609) 882-2572 (phone & fax) cook@cookreport.com Subscription info & prices at http://cookreport.com/subscriptions.shtml Summary of content for 10 years at http://cookreport.com/past_issues.shtml Here Comes Asset Based Telecom A 178 page - Aug Oct issue available at http://cookreport.com/11.05-6.shtml ========================================================