2015-05-13

US Hearing Wednesday: ICANN, .SUCKS, IANA Transition, Accountability


Replay of Live Recording above (hearing begins @ 00:09:15)

Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
Committee on the Judiciary
Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet

Wednesday, May 13, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. EDT (Time Converter)
2141 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.

The hearing will also be webcast live at http://judiciary.house.gov/index.cfm/live-video-feed.

The Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Subcommittee hearing will examine stakeholders perspectives on the operation of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a non-profit California corporation, charged with managing the Internet’s domain name and addressing system. The hearing will focus on the rollout of the new .sucks domain name and the Obama Administration’s proposal to transition oversight of the Domain Name System (DNS) away from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

Witnesses for Wednesday’s hearing are (prepared witness statements at links below):
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) issued the statements below on this hearing.

Chairman Goodlatte: “Just over a year ago the Obama Administration and specifically the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced plans to transition oversight over the Internet’s domain name system to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), raising many questions about the future of the Internet. Next week the Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Subcommittee will hold its second oversight hearing on this matter in order to hear directly from a wide range of stakeholders on the status and impact of the proposed transition as well as other important issues that relate to whether ICANN is trustworthy, accountable and transparent.”

Subcommittee Chairman Issa: “The United States has a deeply held commitment to supporting a free and open Internet, a policy that our nation has recommitted to throughout the years. The future security and stability of maintaining the Domain Name System (DNS) without interference from any one government or organization is crucial to the Internet’s operation.“As we reflect on our long term aspirations for governing the Internet, we must take the utmost caution in establishing a process to transition to a new form of governance. Before a transition of ICANN can occur, there must be robust protections in place to protect the essential functions of the Internet.”

The Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, has jurisdiction over the following subject matters: Administration of U.S. Courts, Federal Rules of Evidence, Civil and Appellate Procedure, judicial ethics, patent and trademark law, information technology, other appropriate matters as referred to by the Chairman and relevant oversight. List of Subcommittee members here.

For more information see:

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