Associated Press
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To the Editor:

Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is delighted to see you talk about public representation for the world's Internet users (10/12/98, "Group opposes Net privatization"). But we must point out that the position of CPSR is more complicated than your headline and first paragraph suggest. Contrary to their thrust, we agree with the Clinton administration that a private, non-profit corporation should make policy on domain names, addresses, and related protocols.

But we also believe that the goal of government -- no matter how poorly the government often carries it out -- is to guarantee that institutions entrusted with a public function stick to the values of democracy, fairness and accountability to the public. The keynote speaker quoted in your article, Professor Lawrence Lessig, explained this eloquently in his speech at our conference last week.

Some of the features the Commerce Department should insist on for the private corporation are that:

1) it permits a wide range of members worldwide;
2) it has rules to ensure that decisions are made openly and can be challenged;
3) its structure gives power to those affected by its decisions rather than technical experts who administer the system;
4) its initial board reflect all significant viewpoints on these questions;
5) it be dedicated to preserving freedom of speech in the policies it fashions.

We were not criticizing the Clinton administration, but the chief proposal for the new corporation that was submitted, because it lacked those features.

CPSR also believes it crucial to preserve a non-commercial area of the Internet where public education and democratic participation can take place.

Thank you again for your coverage. I am a CPSR member responsible for developing some of our public comments on domain names, and can be reached at [ph. deleted] or andyo@cpsr.org.

Andrew Oram
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility