A DUCK IN DENIAL

In a letter addressed to Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Chairman Vinton Cerf, the ACLU criticized a policy that would require meeting attendees to pay a $5,000 "sponsorship" fee in order to distribute materials at the meeting, which begins today.

"ICANN is a public body, it's a quasi-governmental body. They should not be charging $5,000 for the right to speak to them," ACLU Associate Director Barry Steinhardt told Newsbytes today. Steinhardt co-wrote the letter along with ACLU Managing Attorney Peter Eliasberg.

But ICANN policy director Andrew McLaughlin said that the ACLU had misinterpreted the meaning of a notice posted on ICANN's Web site. (The notice stated that "an organization that is not a sponsor will not be permitted to distribute materials in the meeting area.")

"The [ACLU] complaint is mistaken," declared McLaughlin. "ICANN holds open meetings, free to attend, with open mike sessions for public comment. People have always been allowed to distribute policy drafts, proposals, RFCs, resolutions, etc. The meeting is not, however, a trade show, and we don't want companies to use it for marketing purposes. So the distribution of commercial literature is restricted to sponsors. That's SOP for meetings like this."

ICANN then amended its website to read, "An organization that is not a sponsor will not be permitted to distribute commercial materials in the meeting area. (This meeting is not a trade show)."

The duck is quacking.

"What this tells me is that ICANN is a new tradeshow," responded Chris Wellens, President & CEO of InterWorking Labs.

"As the former Director of Technology for NetWorld+Interop (a data networks tradeshow)," writes Wellens, "I can tell you that all tradeshows start with a conference. You try to get the very best speakers and leaders in their field to be at your conference. Andrew says ICANN has open sessions that are free to attend. Well NetWorld+Interop has that too. The keynotes are usually free and open to all. They have open mike sessions in many forms as well. (They also have the conference tracks you have to pay for.)"

Wellens explained that all the successful tradeshows started as conferences, and they tend to lose money in the beginning. Then, slowly they get sponsors, and then ultimately exhibitors. The conference expenses are very high and best case is break even. Soon the organizers figure out that the big money is in the sponsorships and booth space. Selling the booth space is the most lucrative. Most tradeshow companies would love to get rid of the conference portion, but it is the conference that brings the attendees, and without the attendees you cannot sell the sponsorships and booth space.

"ICANN is moving right along this path," he concluded. "They have invited speakers for their conference, and they have sponsors. All the elements comprising the definition of a tradeshow are there. The fact that you have to pay $5,000 to distribute commercial information clearly makes them a tradeshow. If they were truly acting as a non-profit, they could just ask those distributing commercial leaflets for a small sum to defray the expense of renting the table, pipe and drape at the venue... maybe $100 max. Of course, if certain parties could review the financial statements and ICANN was open with their accounting of costs for their tradeshow/meeting, then it would be an easy matter to pro-rate the expense and a satisfactory, fair win-win solution for ICANN, the participants, and those with leaflets could be attained."

ICANN has been characterized as a monopoly, a multi-level marketing scheme, and a franchise organization, as well as a quasi-governmental regulator, all of which it denies. It denies its a trade show, too.

Draw your own conclusions.

Update

The ICANNBlog observes, ICANN has increasingly become a trade show, including the freebies. In addition to parties at night, you can pick up an UltraDNS mug or a .US bag. I've seen ICANN Directors and Staff sporting an ICANN-logo T-Shirt, hat and even a jacket (though not all three on the same person at the same time). It's not as bad as last year, when the prospective TLD chattel abounded, but then again, it's only the first day...

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