In a historic decision, ICANN's Independent Review Process has dealt ICANN's past leadership a severe rebuke. The three judge panel upheld ICM Registry's claim that ICANN treated its application for a .xxx top level domain in an unfair and discriminatory manner. The panelists ruled that the ICANN Board had decided on June 1, 2005 that the .XXX sTLD application met the required sponsorship criteria, and that its “reconsideration of that finding was not consistent with the application of neutral, objective and fair documented policy.” If one understands what was at stake in this case, one realizes that this “defeat” for ICANN's past President and Board Chair (and the Bush Administration) is actually a great victory for ICANN as an institution.
No to ISP Intermediary Liability Down Under
An Australian judge has given the world's supporters of Internet freedom reason to heave a big sigh of relief. Judge J. Cowdroy of Sydney yesterday rejected an attempt by 34 film studios to make iiNet, Australia's third largest Internet Service provider, responsible for the copyright violations of a few of their users. The critical issue was whether iiNet was responsible for infringement because it failed to take any steps to stop infringing conduct. The judge said it wasn't.
Google v. China: the larger issues
This comment from Professor Ron Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski about the wider implications of Google's clash with China deserves the widest possible circulation. As they put it, at issue here is whether "the once unified global Internet space will begin a process of disintegration as countries define their own sovereign...
Chinese takedown, all notice at IGF
The problem with linking inter-governmental organizations and Internet governance were on display today, the very first day of the Egypt Internet Governance Forum. The Open Network Initiative (ONI) planned a reception to launch its new edited collection book, Access Controlled. Outside the room a banner with the book cover graphics and your standard promotional blurb was on display. The blurb mentioned “the great Chinese firewall.” Apparently a representative of the Chinese government complained and someone from the UN or the government of Egypt brought in security and (after about 15 minutes of bizarre discussions) insisted that the banner be taken away.
Giganet award goes to paper exploring use of social networking tools in IG
The 2009 Giganet scholarship award, intended to promote participation and scholarly work in Internet governance, has been awarded to Dr. Robert Bodle for his paper, Social Media and Global Internet Governance: Innovations and Limitations, which will be presented by him at the 2009 Giganet Symposium. The Internet Governance Project, which gives the award, would like to thank all applicants and congratulates them on their contributions
Who's the real Communist?
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the China's Ministry of Culture has announced sweeping new regulations for online music. The new regulations attempt to make the Ministry a bottleneck and gatekeeper for all commercial exchanges of online music in China. Foreign-produced music must be approved by censors and checked...
Job Posting: Global Network Initiative Seeks Executive Director
The Global Network Initiative (GNI) is seeking an Executive Director to lead a new multi-stakeholder organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the human rights of freedom of expression and privacy in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector. About the Global Network Initiative: The GNI was launched on October 29,...
ICANN and Trademark Maximalism (Again)
When ICANN passed a policy to create many new top level domains, both free expression advocates and trademark owners squawked (but for different reasons). ICANNs Board ignored the free expression advocates and rewarded the trademark owners by passing a resolution authorizing the formation of an Implementation Recommendation Team (IRT). IRT is an acronym for “second bite at the apple;” it gave one special interest group, ICANN's Intellectual Property Constituency, the exclusive right to draw up a wish list of their most fervently desired policies for protecting trademarks in an expanding domain name space. Today, the last day for public comment, ICANN veteran Kathy Kleiman, a lawyer who played a role in forging a multistakeholder agreement on the UDRP ten years ago, filed comments pointing out some alarming features of the IRT’s proposal.
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.
