GDNS CEO says he didn’t give permission to be listed as signatory on letter to ICANN.
One of the signers of a letter to ICANN that urged swift approval of new top level domain names says he didn’t agree to sign the letter.
In a letter to ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom, several other high ranking ICANN employees, and its Board of Directors, Stephen Deerhake of GDNS, Inc says he didn’t explicitly agree to sign the letter.
The letter that he is listed as a signatory on urged ICANN to move forward with new top level domain names “without further delay”.
In correcting the record, Deerhake wrote (pdf):
It has been brought to my attention that I am listed as a signatory to a recent communication sent on 21 September 2009 urging ICANN to take immediate steps to implement support for new gTLDs (“Letter from Antony Van Couvering, Paul Stahura, Jonathon Nevett, et. al. to Messrs. Beckstrom, Dengate-Thrush, Brent, Pritzâ€, posted on the ICANN web site.)
My signature on this communication was used without my explicit permission. I am therefore NOT a signatory to this communication, and the contents of this communication DO NOT reflect my views, nor the views of the entities that I represent, with respect to the subject matter of the communication. Please take the necessary steps to rectify this situation on your web site in a timely manner.
Antony Van Couvering says
My mistake – I’ve worked with Stephen for many years and as we put the letter together I thought others had secured his support, and they thought I had.
I’ve written to Stephen directly to apologize and I’ve also posted a public apology on our blog.
Antony
David J Castello says
I respect the way Antony handled this. No denial, no argument. Simply apologized in private and public.
Antony Van Couvering says
@David – thank you, I appreciate that.
In light our screw-up we’ve reviewed and triple checked all the other 60 signatories and they all explicitly supported the letter.