Internet governance issues on which IP Justice engages include: Accountability of Internet Governance Institutions, Multi-Stakeholderism, the Role of Governments, Civil Society, Domain Name Policy, International Relations, Democracy, Justice, Transparency, Internet Freedom, Development, Human Rights, Whois Privacy Policy, Cross-Border Jurisdiction and the Limits of National Sovereignty in Cyberspace
Internet governance venues in which IP Justice participates include: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF), Net Mundial, ITU World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
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.
2007 USTR Report on Trade Policy Agenda and TRIPS
"...The Transitional Review Mechanism under Section 18 of the Protocol on the Accession of the People’s Republic of China has been an important means to raise concerns about China’s implementation of the TRIPS Agreement. This process has been instrumental in helping to understand the levels of protection of intellectual property rights in China, and provides a forum for addressing the concerns of U.S. interests in this process. The United States has been active in seeking answers to questions on a wide range of intellectual property matters and in raising concerns about enforcement of intellectual property rights. The United States also continued to seek satisfactory responses to a formal request submitted to China in October 2005 seeking additional enforcement-related information pursuant to Article 63.3 of the TRIPS Agreement. During 2006, the TRIPS Council undertook reviews of the implementing legislation of Congo and Qatar, in addition to the above-referenced review of China. ..."
ICANN Government Advisory Committee (GAC) Principles for New GTLDs
"The purpose of this document is to identify a set of general public policy principles related to the introduction, delegation and operation of new generic top level domains (gTLDs). They are intended to inform the ICANN Board of the views of the GAC regarding public policy issues concerning new gTLDs and to respond to the provisions in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process ...."
ICANN New gTLD Policy Up for Debate in Lisbon: Censorship and National Sovereignty at Issue
One of the most hotly contested issues at ICANN is the current draft proposal regarding the introduction of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) and its impact on free expression and national sovereignty. While the latest draft proposal would no longer allow a single country to block a new gTLD string application for non-technical reasons, it would allow any group of nations to block an application for a new top-level domain for non-technical reasons. The proposed gTLD policy is still a recipe for censorship and an attack on national sovereignty. Why should the restrictions in one country be imposed upon citizens of another country? No one has even attempted to provide a justification for that.
Sample Letter to Govt Advisory Committee (GAC) Member on Proposed New gTLD Policy
I am writing to you because I am concerned about the GNSO draft final report on the Introduction of New Generic Top-Level Domains, GNSO PDP-Dec05, released 16 March 2007. This proposal contains several troubling provisions involving criteria and processes to select which text strings will be accepted as new gTLDs. These provisions will threaten the national sovereignty of individual nations by allowing other countries to block new gTLD strings that are perfectly lawful in another country.
Sample Letter to ICANN Board Member on Proposal for New gTLDs
I am writing to you because I am concerned about the GNSO draft final report on the Introduction of New Generic Top-Level Domains, GNSO PDP-Dec05, released 16 March 2007. The policy proposal contains several troubling provisions involving criteria and processes to select which text strings will be accepted as new gTLDs. If accepted, the policy will create an enormous work-load burden and legal liability for ICANN in order to decide which new gTLDs to accept. It is also a recipe for censorship since it would give GAC power to prevent strings for non-technical reasons.
“Please, Keep the Core Neutral” – By Michael Palage and Avri Doria
"... Instead of specifying the number of governments to meet a required threshold that can block a potential TLD applicant from being added to the root, the new standard should be that any applicant operating properly under the laws of the country in which it is organized should be subject only to ICANN’s technical, operational and other criteria. Assuming the basic TLD application criteria and processes are met, the TLD should be added to the root. ..."
GNSO New TLDs Committee Draft Final Report -Introduction of Generic Top Level Domains
... The section sets out the principles, policy recommendations and implementation guidelines the GNSO Council’s Committee on the introduction of new top-level domains has developed through its policy development process. The development of all elements of the Committee’s work has been done in close consultation with an ICANN staff team who have provided advice on policy, operational and legal matters for the Committee. ... Recommendation 6 - Strings must not be contrary to generally accepted legal norms relating to morality and public order.
NCUC Minority Report on GNSO New gTLD Policy Proposal
NCUC Minority Report I wish to supplement the work of the Committee by adding these comments. It is my view that any general Principle which seeks to prohibit any gTLD promoting hatred, racism, discrimination, crime or any abuse of religions or cultures is fundamentally flawed insofar as it fails to [...]
Letter from Chairman of EU’s Article 29 Working Party on Data Protection Regarding WhoIs
ARTICLE 29 - DATA PROTECTION WORKING PARTY ON THE PROTECTION OF INDIVIDUALS WITH REGARD TO THE PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA Opinion on the application of the data protection principles to the WhoIs Directories (ORIGINAL DOCUMENT AS .PDF) 1. Introduction: The WhoIs directories raise several issues from the data protection perspective. [...]
Power-Grab: ICANN to Become Internet’s “Word Police” — Top-Level Domain Policy to Bypass National Sovereignty and Free Speech
Civil Society Proposes Amendment to Protect Civil Liberties and Innovation ICANN’s Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) submitted a proposal to protect freedom of expression and innovation in the introduction of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). ICANN’s policy council, the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), is currently developing policy recommendations to regulate the introduction of new top-level domain names on the Internet. NCUC is troubled by the GNSO’s draft recommendation to create string selection criteria that would prevent the registration of a new gTLD string that contains a controversial word or idea. ..."
Power-Grab: ICANN to Become Internet’s “Word Police” – New gTLD Policy to Bypass National Sovereignty & Free Speech
"... Unless reformed, this ICANN policy will prevent anyone in the world from being able to use controversial words like "abortion" or "gay" in a new gTLD if a single country objects to their use. The proposal would further prevent the use of numerous ordinary words like "herb" and "john" in a string since they can have an illegal connotation in certain contexts. In addition to any country in the world being able to stop a new gTLD string, ICANN staff would also be able to prevent any idea that it deemed too controversial to exist in the new domain space. The 13 Feb. proposal (Term of Reference 2(x)) gives ICANN staff the important job of making preliminary determinations as to whether a string is inappropriate and who the "legitimate sponsor" of a domain name (such as .god) should be. "The 13 Feb proposal would essentially make ICANN the arbiter of public policy and morality in the new gTLD space, a frightening prospect for anyone who cares about democracy and free expression," said Robin Gross, Executive Director of IP Justice, an NCUC member organization. "The proposal would give ICANN enormous power to regulate the use of language on the Internet and lead to massive censorship of controversial ideas." ...
NCUC Proposal to Reform Draft Policy on Introduction of New gTLDs
"Current proposal is unworkable due to competing standards of morality and competing public policy objectives. Current proposal usurps national sovereignty. ICANN is not a legislative body to be determining "appropriate" public policy objectives and global standards of morality. National legislatures determine what is lawful in their own jurisdictions. Current proposal places enormous burden and liability on ICANN for its decisions as to what is controversial and who is the worthy applicant for a particular string. ICANN will have to remain content-neutral to avoid legal liability. Freedom of expression can be better protected with NCUC's proposal since the restrictions are more narrowly tailored to meet national law...."
Chairman’s Closing Remarks of IGF Open Consultation (13 Feb 2007)
13 February 2007 IFG Consultations Geneva "Taking stock and the way forward" CHAIRMAN NITIN DESAI - Conclusions I think we've had a very valuable and useful discussion. I'm going to try and say a few things which draw on this, as well as perhaps integrating some ideas which emerged yesterday [...]