The US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has been concerned about ICANN top managers leaving the regulator for private domain businesses. As earlier reported, at last week’s ICANN Meeting in Barcelona, NTIA head David Redl pointed out the importance of introducing the “cooling off periods,” during which recently departed ICANN staff will not be allowed to take up employment with private companies in the domain business.
But the story does not stop there. The NTIA sent a letter to ICANN containing almost the same arguments as those David Redl outlined in his speech in Barcelona. This time, the NTIA was more straightforward and persistent about the reasons for its discontent. “Recent ICANN senior staff departures have highlighted that ICANN lacks postemployment restrictions,” the letter reads. This primarily refers to Akram Atallah, former head of ICANN's Global Domains Division in charge of the top-level domain program, who will run the Donuts registry from November 12.
Domain Name Wire points to several problems that may stem from the NTIA proposal. First of all, the domain business is where ICANN gets many of its personnel. This is quite logical since their knowledge and skills meet the company’s needs. Such specialists will be more reluctant to accept employment with the company if they know they could be forced out of work in the industry for a while. Also, the policy may impose an additional burden on the budget if the company is obliged to pay former employees until the end of the out-of-job period. And finally, the employment laws of many countries may not be able to limit post-job recruitment in certain sectors. Then national laws will have priority over any ICANN regulations.
