After numerous and persistent requests from the domain community ICANN has published its data on the lobbying expenses including support in the US legislative and executive bodies. ICANN's representatives had been postponing this step for many months, explaining that the term "lobbying" is too indistinct and needs more exact definitions.
According to the document, the sum spent by ICANN on lobbying was about $766,000 last year. Nevertheless, The Register journalists suppose that it is not an exact figure. They pay attention to the fact that there is a separate cost form for educative and educational projects in the ICANN's report. It is curious that the firms headed by the most influential politicians of yesterday such as former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and Condoleezza Rice, and former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley are among the recipients of means under this form. Considering a kind of activity of the companies and these characters' political weight, The Register comes to an unambiguous conclusion that their services need also to be estimated as lobbying. To sum up, total amount of ICANN's costs for lobbying is estimated by The Register at $2,5m. It puts the non-profit in one row with large international corporations which spend quite comparable sums for lobbying.
