Here’s the latest bit of nonsense from the US – China digital Cold War front. A Financial Times article is getting a lot of attention because it claims that we are in imminent danger of the Chinese using the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to impose an entirely “new Internet” standard...
The Cyberspace Solarium Commission is the creation of two Congressmen, Senator Angus King of Maine, and Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin. Its goal was to develop consensus among DC elites about cybersecurity policy. For better or worse, its main focus is on the military and foreign policy aspects of cybersecurity....
At the beginning of the New Year, Robert Knake, who was once the Obama administration’s Director for Cybersecurity Policy at the National Security Council and is now a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, predicted in a blog that “at some point in the next decade, the Chinese government,...
Yesterday Ethos Capital proposed an amendment to its Registry Agreement to address the concerns that have been expressed by registrants about its acquisition of the ORG domain. The amendment is codified in what is known as a Public Interest Commitment (PIC). As its news release states, “These legally-binding commitments cannot...
On February 7, ICANN released an initial report on the next step in the reform of Whois. The report will be open for public comment until March 23, 2020. In the analysis below, we make it clear what issues defenders of privacy and individual rights should address in their comments....
This post notifies ICANN org and its board that Noncommercial Stakeholders are still waiting for a consultation regarding the sale of .ORG. It explains why such a consultation is not a courtesy to be offered at ICANN's discretion, but is a requirement based on ICANN's own Registry Agreement (RA) contract...
The controversy over the sale of ORG has taken an ugly turn. As we have made clear in several blog posts related to the sale, what registrants need is not emotional cries to “stop the sale” but an ICANN-mediated renewal of the commitments made in the original grant, and some...
The past years have been turbulent for trade and the digital economy. While protectionist agendas are affecting trade generally, the problem is compounded when national cyber security concerns are linked to trade in digital products and services. This has led to the rise of a phenomenon known as tech nationalism....
ICANN's Noncommercial Stakeholders Group (NCSG) has sent a letter to the ICANN board asking it to enter into negotiations with Ethos Capital to ensure that its operation of the ORG domain conforms to criteria upon which the original award of ORG was made. Invoking the original Request for Proposals in...
The UN Internet Governance Forum demonstrated its utility as a forum for bringing together relevant parties for negotiations and discussions yesterday. A snap "town hall" meeting convened about 50 civil society members and representatives of the Internet Society (ISOC) and ICANN to express concerns about the sale of .ORG. Notably...
“In characteristically rigorous fashion, Mueller’s outstanding book punctures the alarmist myth of Internet fragmentation and helps us to understand what is really at stake as nations and other groups vie for power over the Internet.”
