[ NNSquad ] Re: Susan Crawford

[Brett Glass <nnsquad@brettglass.com>]

  [ To be clear about Brett's comments below, I did *not* say in the
    quoted message that I was disappointed in Susan Crawford's 
    appointment, rather that I was disappointed in her approach 
    to TLD issues (while on the ICANN board).

    Brett expresses other concerns about Susan's 
    appointment -- concerns that (as you might guess) I do *not* share.

        -- Lauren Weinstein
           NNSquad Moderator ]

- - -

At 01:07 PM 3/24/2009, Lauren Weinstein wrote:

>   "Internet law expert Susan Crawford has joined President Barack Obama's
>    lineup of tech policy experts at the White House, according to several
>    sources."
>
> Since ICANN is mentioned below, I must note that I found Susan's vocal
> support of the proposed dot-ex-ex-ex TLD, and what many observers
> viewed as her mischaracterization of alleged support for that TLD, to
> be extremely disappointing.

Her appointment is disappointing to me as well, though for 
different reasons. The Obama administration has said, repeatedly, 
that it would not hire lobbyists to work in areas in which they 
have lobbied. Yet, Susan Crawford is on the advisory board 
(http://www.publicknowledge.org/about/who/advisors) of a 
Google-funded lobbying group called Public Knowledge, which is 
lobbying on various tech policy issues and advocates onerous 
regulation of the Internet.

Ms. Crawford has also expressed publicly her conviction that the 
Internet should be regulated "like a utility" 
(http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=220488&SecID=2) 
and/or nationalized 
(http://scrawford.net/blog/structural-will/784/) and has falsely 
stated to Congress that there is no competition in the realm of 
Internet service. (Ironically, I, a competitive Internet service 
provider, was sitting in the hearing room at the time.) None of 
these things, in my opinion, bode well.

--Brett Glass