At ARIN, yet another intense controversy is swirling around the problem of IPv4 address transfers. At its 18 March 2009 meeting, the Board declared an emergency and revised a transfer policy that we all thought it had adopted a month earlier. The Board explained the new draft policy, 2009-1, with the statement, “The
Board has been concerned for some time that the lack of a liberalized transfer policy would create legal risk: that we had not provided a mechanism to improve the efficient utilization of previously-allocated resources, and that this risk was significant enough to jeopardize ARIN’s ability to fulfill its stewardship mission.”
RIPE: Existing Internet community policy channels and processes insufficient
RIPE's Enhanced Cooperation Task Force has released a report, calling for the establishment of a standing working group to discuss improving coordination and communication between the Internet community and public sectors on Internet policy matters. The report states it is “clear that the conventional channels and processes of the Internet community are not, of themselves, sufficient to meet the demands of enhanced cooperation.”
Norway claims agreement on “net neutrality”
The Consumer Council of Norway, the Consumer Ombudsman, Norwegian Internet service providers and the Norwegian regulatory authority have come to an agreement on joint guidelines for net neutrality. [Note: An earlier version of this post made some assertions based on the understanding that the Norway blocking list was compulsory, which we have learned is not true.]
Cyber-safety, or global censorship?
ICANN has encouraged new constituencies to get involved in the GNSO. Now it has got what it asked for. This month, Cheryl Preston filed a petition with ICANN to form a new “Cyber-safety Constituency.” It turns out that this constituency is nothing more than an extension of the CP80 Foundation. CP80 is devoted to systematic, global censorship of internet content in order to eradicate pornography.
WIPO the cybersquatter
The World Intellectual Property Organization, which operates the dominant domain name – trademark dispute resolution service, has ripped off someone else's trademark with a domain name registration. The discovery was made by US patent and trademark lawyer John Berryhill, known for defending domain name registrants against UDRP claims.
IGF: The more things change, the more they stay the same
Compared to other international and intergovernmental negotiations, which move at a snail’s pace, the Internet Governance Forum is still a highly dynamic process with a continuing openness towards change and experimentation. This year's most interesting area of experimentation concerns the outcomes of the Internet Governance Forum. The IGF is a space for policy dialogue; it is a non-binding process without any oversight functions. Even recommendations are permitted only in one specific area of “emerging issues”. But after a year of less polarized discussions in the MAG, the original antagonism inherited from WSIS had a comeback at last week's meetings.
Paul Twomey Steps Down as ICANN CEO
Dr. Paul Twomey, the Australian who was ICANN's first Governmental Advisory Committee chair and later leveraged his governmental and private sector connections to become the Chief Executive Officer of ICANN, indicated that his term as CEO would not be renewed at the opening of the ICANN meeting in Mexico. Under Twomey's leadership ICANN weathered the World Summit on the Information Society and experienced a more than 10-fold increase in the size of its budget. He has been in that position so long that some view him as the personification of ICANN.
Non-Commercial Users File Petition to Form Stake-Holder Group at ICANN
UPDATE: ICANN is soliciting comments on the NCSG Charter Proposal. Comments are due by April 15, 2009 and can be submitted to: sg-petitions-charters@icann.org. Robin Gross, current Chair of the NCUC has issued a call for support with reasons for why the Charter Proposal should be approved.
Via IP Justice:
Participants from ICANN’s Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) filed a petition to form a new stake-holder group as ICANN’s structure transforms from a GNSO of 6 constituencies to 4 more broadly defined “stake-holder groups”. More info on this here.
The NCSG petition was sent to ICANN along with an Executive Summary and a supporting graphic chart on 28 February 2009 in anticipation of ICANN’s 34th Public Meeting, which will be held from 1-6 March 2009 in Mexico City.
This petition is by no means a final proposal, so feedback is welcome on how to improve the structure and operations of the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG) to best serve the needs of non-commercial users of domain names.
The petition was submitted by NCUC’s Executive Committee and GNSO Councilors and other non-commercial participants. Non-commercial organizations and individuals are invited to join NCUC and participate in policy development at ICANN.
