Table of USTR Special 301 Reports (2004 – 2006)
IP Justice prepared a table that summarizes the USTR Special 301 Reports from 2004-2006
Slides on the Law of Search Engines @ Yale A2K2 Conference
By Robin Gross, IP Justice Executive Director - Yale Law School Information Society Project on Access to Knowledge
Yale Law School’s Information Society Project Access to Knowledge Conference (A2K2)
click on above title for more info on the event
Table of USTR Special 301 Reports (2004 – 2006)
IP Justice prepared a table that summarizes USTR Special 301 Reports from 2004 - 2006
Reports Cards Out Soon! How well is your country protecting US interests?
IP Justice has prepared a summary of reports in anticipation of this week's release from the United States Trade Representative (USTR) of its annual "Special 301 Report" (a report-card on how well foreign countries protect the interests of large US intellectual property holders). The IP Justice table includes the last three years of USTR Special 301 Reports (2004 - 2006).
Information Society Watch
A Southern Lens on the Information Society. The Information Society Watch (ISW) captures information society issues in the context of development needs of the South. It is intended for developing learning and knowledge-sharing platforms to help build perspectives for analysis, advocacy and action.
ICANN Board Vote Signals Era of Censorship in Domain Names
"While Friday's vote was specific to the application for a .XXX domain name space, the Board Members' vote signals their position as to whether they are comfortable with ICANN expanding its mission to become a regulator of online human behavior. By voting to turn down the .XXX application for public policy reasons, the Board indicated it will go beyond its technical mission of DNS coordination and seek to decide what ideas are allowed to be given a voice in the new domain name space. Unfortunately, it looks like it will be impossible for any idea that is politically or culturally controversial to be permitted a new domain name space by ICANN. ICANN is setting itself up as an institution of censorship and subordination to the conflicting goals of governments...."
Milton Mueller & Bruce Tonkin Discuss Censorship and New gTLD Policy
>>MILTON MUELLER: And I think that's tragic, that you are basically saying -- you are creating a political process of censorship. You're sort of abandoning 300 years of liberal ideology about freedom of expression and saying that we are going to decide what is allowed to be uttered at the top level based on an alleged universality that doesn't exist. And I would just remind you that one of the ways that we ended several centuries of religious warfare was not by deciding which religion was right; it was by the principle of tolerance, which allowed all the religions to exist and separated state power from expression and conscious and belief. And that's, I'd suggest, a direction we have to go. ....
ICANN Board Member Susan Crawford’s Remarks on Vote to Prevent .xxx Domain Name Space Application
Excellent comments on new gTLD process: "... I note as a side point that such a requirement in the U.S. would violate the first amendment to our Constitution. But this content-related censorship should not be ICANN's concern and ICANN should not allow itself to be used as a private lever for government chokepoint content control by making up reasons to avoid the creation of such a TLD in the first place. To the extent there are public policy concerns with this TLD, they can be dealt with through local laws. ... We should be examining generic TLD applicants on the basis of their technical and financial strength. We should avoid dealing with content concerns to the maximum extent possible. We should be opening up new TLDs. ..."
2007 USTR Report on Trade Policy Agenda and 2006 Annual Report
The 2007 Trade Policy Agenda and 2006 Annual Report of the President of the United States on the Trade Agreements Program are submitted to the Congress pursuant to Section 163 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2213). Chapter II and Annex II of this document meet the requirements on the World Trade Organization in accordance with Sections 122 and 124 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act. In addition, the report also includes an annex listing trade agreements entered into by the United States since 1984. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is responsible for the preparation of this report, which was written by USTR staff. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor, and State.