Communications

Business Constituency policy for e-mail lists

  1. Objective
  2. Editorial and participatory policy
  3. Termination and suspension
  4. Disputes

1. Objective

  • The objective of a Business Constituency (BC) e-mail list is to enable members to engage in dialogue on issues within the competence of ICANN.
  • The site is not a platform for personal, governmental or organisational opinions on political, religious or social matters.
  • The term e-mail list refers to any list using e-mail or equivalent means such as a web-based forum for group communication.

2. Editorial and participatory policy

  1. The Officers of the BC will appoint a moderator (typically the BC secretariat) for a BC e-mail list.
  2. The responsibility for accuracy and copyright of any statement will be that of the author. A BC member’s decision to post to a BC e-mail list is a de facto demonstration of their acceptance of the BC e-mail list policy.
  3. Only paid-up members of the BC are entitled to post to a BC list. Typically, this will be the designated principle contact. The principle contact can, however, nominate others from the same member company to be included on a copy list.
  4. The moderator is charged with providing a value-added service with an objective to make BC e-mail lists desirable to read by time-pressed business members by minimising the unnecessary and untidy correspondence characteristic of certain e-mail lists within the ICANN world.
  5. In accordance with 2.4, there is a principle of no editorial interference to a posting and liberal posting but the moderator may composite replies on the same topic, change the subject line, remove trailing e-mails, or take any other action designed to make reading the e-mails clear and simple for members.
  6. In accordance with 2.4, the moderator reserves the right to refuse all contributions as the moderator sees fit. Specifically the following may be grounds for refusal:
    1. content which is not related to ICANN issues
    2. content which is off-topic in a topic-specific group or session
    3. content which infringes the BC charter or adopted guidelines
    4. content which seeks to harass, abuse, threaten, or advocate violence against other members or individuals or groups
    5. content which is harmful to minors
    6. content which is obscene, or otherwise objectionable
    7. content which seems to be for commercial purposes
    8. content which infringes the intellectual property or privacy of third parties
    9. content which is repetitive or sent to more than one BC list
    10. content which goes beyond relevant information and interferes with a due process of the BC such as an election or other vote
    11. more than one posting a day from a member.
  7. Special rules for elections
During elections there is a need for special rules in line with article 5 of the Charter to ensure the integrity of the process and fairness to all candidates. This means inter alia that the the returning officer for the election will unless otherwise agreed instruct the moderator as follows:
to open a nomination period but only publish nominations to the list at the close of that period;
to open a discussion period (where the external timetable allows) but to monitor air time to ensure fairness to all candidates, and if necessary delete or suspend postings;
to open a voting period and suspend all election and candidate related list mail during that period.

3. Termination and suspension

The Officers of the BC, in their sole discretion, may terminate or suspend for a period of time the ability of a BC member to participate in a BC e-mail list if the Officers believe that the member has acted inconsistently with this policy over a sustained period of time.

4. Disputes

Any disputes in relation to this policy will be decided upon by the Officers, whose decision will be final.