Draft Agenda:
More info here including online participation.
On twitter: @intgovforum (embed below) and @sgdickinson.
Showing posts with label IGF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IGF. Show all posts
2019-06-05
IGF 2019 Third Open Consultations and MAG Meeting June 5-7
IGF 2019 Third Open Consultations and MAG Meeting, June 5-7, Berlin
The purpose of the third round of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) open consultations and the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) meeting is to advance preparations for the IGF 2019 annual meeting 25 to 29 November 2019, in Berlin, and to take stock of the ongoing IGF community intersessional activities and other relevant internet governance related fora.
Draft Agenda:
More info here including online participation.
Draft Agenda:
More info here including online participation.
2019-04-14
News Review | GDPR & ICANN EPDP Phase 2, The Facebook Effect?
1) GDPR & ICANN EPDP Phase 2, The Facebook Effect?
"On geographic differentiation, and on the subject of GDPR compliance generally, I was pleased to see the CEO of Facebook come out in favor of global, non-differentiated privacy protection. In his widely-read blog, Mark Zuckerberg said:
'... effective privacy and data protection needs a globally harmonized framework. People around the world have called for comprehensive privacy regulation in line with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, and I agree. I believe it would be good for the internet if more countries adopted regulation such as GDPR as a common framework.'"I look forward to seeing Margie [Milam][BC EPDP member] and other FB employees join us in support for a globally harmonized application of GDPR as we enter Phase 2"--Milton Mueller, Professor, Georgia Tech (NCSG EPDP member).
2) ICANN EPDP, GDPR & WHOIS--WSIS Forum 2019 Session 11 Apr 2019
Public comment period closes 17 Apr 2019 23:59 UTC on the EPDP (Phase 1) Final Report's recommendations.
See also briefing note (pdf) on the session prepared by Nigel Hickson.
Postscript from the CCWG IG mail list re: organization of an IGF Workshop:
"... EPDP is a piece of ex post facto internal ICANN-esque housekeeping. The time to have had an IGF session on WHOIS Privacy was about two years ago when we all knew about GDPR, except, apparently, GNSO. As of today, We don't know whether the ICANN Board will adopt EDPR, we don’t know whether the outcome will be compatible with GDPR, even if to goes up to the ECJ. For my part I haven’t the faintest idea what to expect from ‘Phase 2’ of EPDP, so I say no more."--Christopher Wilkinson
"I have concerns about the CCWG IG and ICANN Org proposing an IGF workshop on SSR (or on any subject) without adequate coordination and vetting of the proposal, panelists, subject matter, and messaging. I was happy to have been able to jump in and help with today’s WSIS Forum session on the EPDP, but I think we need to be more deliberate in our planning and decision-making around externally-facing engagements. I am not comfortable with proposing this session without sufficient preparation and agreement, neither of which I’ve seen. We’re probably better off not proposing a session at all, rather than scrambling to fit something in at the 11th hour."--Keith Drazek, GNSO Chair
3) Other ICANN News
"ICANN is a b[r]oken model, I vote for ICANN 4.0. No ICANN"--J. Scott Evans is a "Trademark Titan and Adobe Rockstar" and past president of INTA, the International Trademark Association.ICANN is a boken model I vote for ICANN 4.0. No ICANN.— J. Scott Evans (@_jscottevans) April 6, 2019
Editor's note: I agree, "ICANN is a broken model"--
b. Managing IDN Variant TLDs: Letter (pdf) of 08 April 2019 from ICANN GDD Sr. VP Cyrus Namazi to ccNSO Chair Kartina Sataki and GNSO Chair Keith Drazek, excerpt:
"... the ICANN Board approved a set of Recommendations for Managing Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Variant Top-Level Domains (TLDs) on 14 March 2019 and requested that the ccNSO and GNSO take these recommendations into account while developing their respective policies to define and manage IDN variant labels for current and future TLDs. The ICANN Board has also requested that the ccNSO and GNSO keep each other informed of their progress in developing the relevant details of their policies and procedures to ensure that a consistent solution, based on these IDN variant TLD recommendations, is developed for IDN variant ccTLDs and gTLDs ..."
c. .AMAZON Redux
08 April 2019 Letter from ICANN Board Chair Cherine Chalaby to Amb. Alexandra Moreira Lopez (pdf) re: new gTLD applications for .AMAZON, excerpt:
As I said last week:
Editor's note: the idea of having private .BRAND gTLDs was a mistake from the beginning, a corruption of the concept of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) as set forth in RFC 1591 written by Jon Postel, which predates the formation of ICANN and its "Californication" of the internet and global DNS. I'm with the South American countries. ICANN should do the "right thing" for once and end the .BRAND gTLD program, refund the application fees, and "undelegate" all .BRAND gTLDs from the internet "root," while allowing every owner of a distinctive trademark to block use of that mark as a gTLD in the future. [End the ICANN extortion racket -- see .PING testimony.]
"... the 7 April 2019 deadline has now passed, and the ICANN Board has not received either a mutually agreed-upon proposal for a solution or a joint request for an extension of the 7 April 2019 deadline. Therefore, the Board will proceed with next steps, as laid out in the resolution quoted below, which calls on the Amazon corporation to submit by 21 April 2019 a proposal for how it will address the ACTO member states’ concerns regarding the .AMAZON applications ..."UPDATE: ICANN Letter 15 April 2019 re Proposed Extension of Time to 7 June 2019.
As I said last week:
Editor's note: the idea of having private .BRAND gTLDs was a mistake from the beginning, a corruption of the concept of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) as set forth in RFC 1591 written by Jon Postel, which predates the formation of ICANN and its "Californication" of the internet and global DNS. I'm with the South American countries. ICANN should do the "right thing" for once and end the .BRAND gTLD program, refund the application fees, and "undelegate" all .BRAND gTLDs from the internet "root," while allowing every owner of a distinctive trademark to block use of that mark as a gTLD in the future. [End the ICANN extortion racket -- see .PING testimony.]
d. Read this ICANN Org: Working together when we’re not together | blog.google--We were happy to find no difference in the effectiveness, performance ratings, or promotions for individuals and teams whose work requires collaboration with colleagues around the world versus Googlers who spend most of their day to day working with colleagues in the same office. See also Google's Distributed Work Playbooks (pdf).
4) Names, Domains & Trademarks
a. Trademark FUCT? (domain: fuct.com): U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari January 4, 2019, and will hear oral arguments April 15, 2019, and decide whether "Section 1052(a)'s prohibition on the federal registration of "immoral" or "scandalous" marks is facially invalid under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment." U.S. Supreme Court Case: 18-302 IANCU V. BRUNETTI.
b. Don’t Ignore Trademark Basics--finnegan.com: "... Trademark registrations protect your name, or logo, or in some cases the shape of your product ... A trademark registration can also be a useful tool in takedown procedures on social media, recovering a domain name, and preventing import of counterfeit products ..."
c. ICANN's outside legal counsel, Jones Day (jonesday.com), has been named the strongest law firm brand in the United States for the third year in a row per this year’s Acritas US Law Firm Brand Index, with Skadden (skadden.com) gaining to a close second. All top U.S. law firm brands listed in the Acritas Index use a .COM domain name exclusively as their primary domain.
d. Trademarks & 'Legal Fakes'--how to steal a brand by trademarking it in other jurisdictions--Trademark Squatting:
b. Don’t Ignore Trademark Basics--finnegan.com: "... Trademark registrations protect your name, or logo, or in some cases the shape of your product ... A trademark registration can also be a useful tool in takedown procedures on social media, recovering a domain name, and preventing import of counterfeit products ..."
c. ICANN's outside legal counsel, Jones Day (jonesday.com), has been named the strongest law firm brand in the United States for the third year in a row per this year’s Acritas US Law Firm Brand Index, with Skadden (skadden.com) gaining to a close second. All top U.S. law firm brands listed in the Acritas Index use a .COM domain name exclusively as their primary domain.
d. Trademarks & 'Legal Fakes'--how to steal a brand by trademarking it in other jurisdictions--Trademark Squatting:
- Foreign Trademarks, Legal Feuds and Fake News: Supreme v. Supreme Italia--thefashionlaw.com.
- Bird & Bird | The Phenomenon of "Legal Fakes": A Supreme Contradiction? (pdf): "... One of the more common ways in which a brand might be regarded as a "legal fake" is when the "fake" brand obtains a trade mark registration in a market where the original has yet to expand into, or obtain trade mark registrations in. Intellectual property rights are territorial in nature, and registering a trademark in a country typically does not automatically grant one a global monopoly to use that trademark – the protection does not extend beyond the border of the country where it was granted. Many jurisdictions, including Singapore, adopt the first-to-file system, instead of the first-to-use system. This means that, generally speaking, an applicant who registers the trademark first would obtain an earlier, and therefore better, right on the trade mark register ..."
e. Smart regulation for combating illegal content--blog.google: "... we support refinement of notice-and-takedown regimes, but we have significant concerns about laws that would mandate proactively monitoring or filtering content, impose overly rigid timelines for content removal, or otherwise impose harsh penalties even on those acting in good faith. These types of laws create a risk that platforms won’t take a balanced approach to content removals, but instead take a “better safe than sorry” approach—blocking content at upload or implementing a “take down first, ask questions later (or never)” approach. We regularly receive overly broad removal requests, and analyses of cease-and-desist and takedown letters have found that many seek to remove potentially legitimate or protected speech ..."
See also:
- European Union plans to fine Facebook, Google, Twitter and other online platforms if they fail to remove extremist content within one hour.
- Official EU Agencies Falsely Reported Terrorist Content on more than 550 archive.org URLs--blog.archive.org.
5) ICYMI Internet Domain News
"... The EDPS investigation will therefore assess which Microsoft products and services are currently being used by the EU institutions, and whether the contractual arrangements concluded between Microsoft and the EU institutions are fully compliant with data protection rules. Regulation 2018/1725 brings the data protection rules applicable to the EU institutions in line with the rules for other organisations and businesses operating in the EU, set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). As the data protection supervisory authority for the EU institutions, the EDPS is not only responsible for monitoring their compliance, but also for ensuring public awareness of any possible risks to individual and societal rights and freedoms in relation to the processing of personal data, and for working in close cooperation with national data protection authorities and other relevant national bodies to mitigate these risks. It is in this spirit of cooperation that the EDPS takes note of the Data Protection Impact Assessment Report on diagnostic data in Microsoft Office ProPlus of 5 November 2018, commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security. Any EU institutions using the Microsoft applications investigated in this report are likely to face similar issues to those encountered by national public authorities, including increased risks to the rights and freedoms of individuals ..."EU Digital Tax: EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager: Europe must lead the way with a digital tax if there is insufficient consensus globally.
EU Antitrust: Google and Facebook’s Next Big Fight--the EU regulator nicknamed “Mr. GDPR” wants to go way beyond privacy and into antitrust. "The linking of these two things should worry the tech giants."--bloomberg.com.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urged by Senators. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) to "take action" against Facebook and Google over possible antitrust and data privacy violations.--thehill.com. See also The Privacy Project | nytimes.com.
6) Most Read this past week on DomainMondo.com:
-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo
2019-04-08
IGF 2019 Second Open Consultations and MAG Meeting, April 9-11
IGF 2019 Second Open Consultations and MAG Meeting
In preparation for IGF 2019, the third face-to-face 2019 Open Consultations and MAG Meeting will take place on 5-7 June 2019 in Berlin, Germany. The meeting will be held on the premises of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, near the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (central railway station). See also: @sgdickinson and @UNSGdigicoop.
Tweets by intgovforum
feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo
DISCLAIMER
- Dates: Tuesday, 9 April, 2019 thru Thursday, 11 April, 2019 (all day) #IGF2019
- IGF 2019 Call for Issues: Initial Results Analysis
- Hosted by IGF Secretariat
- Website: http://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/content/igf-2019-second-open-consultations-and-mag-meeting (agenda, online participation, webcasts, etc.)
- The meeting will take place at the Room A.
- Open Consultations will be held on day 2 (Wednesday, April 10).
- See also https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/
The fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF 2019) will be hosted by the Government of Germany in Berlin from 25 to 29 November 2019.One week left: Submit your workshop proposal for #IGF2019 by April 12. Here's how 💡👉: https://t.co/uWwlDZXn0N @intgovforum #InternetGovernance pic.twitter.com/s9Czw2thSl— IGF 2019 Berlin (@2019IGF) April 4, 2019
In preparation for IGF 2019, the third face-to-face 2019 Open Consultations and MAG Meeting will take place on 5-7 June 2019 in Berlin, Germany. The meeting will be held on the premises of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, near the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (central railway station). See also: @sgdickinson and @UNSGdigicoop.
Tweets by intgovforum
feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo
DISCLAIMER
2017-12-31
News Review | 12 Questions for 2018: Domains, ISOC, Internet, ICANN
1) 12 Questions for 2018: Domains, Internet Society (ISOC), Internet, ICANN
The 2017 collapse in new gTLDs' domain name registrations:
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| graphic source: ntldstats.com |
- Statistics at namestat.org are even more sobering.
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| "Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth." - Mike Tyson |
2. Will the Internet Society (ISOC) find its way in 2018?
- The ISOC Feasibility Study | internetgovernance.org: "Since the completion of the IANA transition ISOC [Internet Society] seems rudderless."
- The Internet Society receives most of its revenue (pdf) from its affiliate Public Interest Registry (PIR), specifically, PIR.org’s operation of the legacy gTLD .org. But does Public Interest Registry operate in the public interest?
Keeping Copyright Site-Blocking At Bay: 2017 In Review | Electronic Frontier Foundation | eff.org: "... This year, we’ve kept pressure on ICANN, the nonprofit body that makes domain name policy, to keep copyright enforcement out of their governing documents. And we’ve called out domain name registry companies who bypassed ICANN policy to create (or propose) their own private copyright enforcement machines. Public Interest Registry (PIR), the organization that manages the .org and .ngo top-level domains, announced in February that it intended to create a system of private arbitrators who would hear complaints of copyright infringement on websites. The arbitrators would wield the power to take away a website’s domain name, and possibly transfer it to the party who complained of infringement. The Domain Name Association (DNA), an industry trade association [started by Fadi Chehade and ICANN], also endorsed the plan. EFF pointed out that this plan was developed in secret, without input from Internet users, and that it would bypass many of the legal protections for website owners and users that U.S. courts have developed over the years. Within weeks [and only after being exposed by the EFF], PIR and DNA shelved this plan, apparently for good. Unfortunately, some domain registries continue to suspend domain names based on accusations from major motion picture distributors (whom they call “trusted notifiers”) ... these policies erode public trust in the domain name system, a key piece of Internet infrastructure ..."
- IANA Internet Assigned Numbers Authority trademarks now held by IETF Trust c/o Internet Society after being assigned by ICANN as required by terms of the IANA transition:
"Whereas, the IANA Stewardship Coordination Group (ICG) included in its proposal that the intellectual property held by ICANN in relation to performing the IANA functions should be transferred to a neutral third party to hold for the benefit of the global Internet community, and licensed back to ICANN."
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| IANA graphics from USPTO.gov records at links below |
IANA: Trademark Status & Document Retrieval | uspto.gov: "Owner Name: IETF TRUST Composed of: Arkko, Jari, individual, Finland; Berger, Louis I., individual, United States; Brown, Kathryn C., individual, United States; Daigle, Leslie, individual, United States; Gondrom, Marc Tobias Daniel, individual, Germany; Levine, John, individual, United States; Pelletier, Raymond G., individual, United States; Schliesser,, Benson R., individual, United States; Sullivan, Andrew John, individual, United States; Owner Address: c\o INTERNET SOCIETY 1775 Wiehle Avenue, Suite 201, Reston, Virginia 20190."
Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) | uspto.gov: IANA "Registration Date September 17, 2002 ... Last Listed Owner IETF TRUST .... Assignment Recorded. Distinctiveness Limitation Statement in part, as to 'INTERNET ASSIGNED NUMBERS AUTHORITY.'"Editor's note: The Internet Society's (ISOC) misguided missteps:
- ISOC should have defended the internet principles of Jon Postel's RFC 1591: "These designated authorities (TLD registry operators) are trustees for the delegated domain, and have a duty to serve the community. The designated manager is the trustee of the top-level domain for both the nation, in the case of a country code, and the global Internet community." Instead, ISOC "sold out" the global internet community and Postel's principles by allowing ICANN to trash RFC 1591 in its new gTLDs program--buying and selling gTLDs like chattel--and giving away gTLDs in perpetuity, each having complete predatory pricing power, contrary to the advice and recommendations of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (pdf). When it really counted, the Internet Society failed the global internet community;
- ISOC should have become an advocate for consumers (registrants) worldwide, knowing ICANN was completely neglecting consumer (registrant) protections in its new gTLDs program contrary to the advice of the DOJ Antitrust Division (link above);
- ISOC's registry operator, PIR, with over 10 million domain names under management, should not still be relying on for-profit Afilias, to provide registry back-end services;
- ISOC should have developed and have in place contingency plans for providing the IANA services when the global internet community replaces ICANN and/or its affiliate PTI (see Question 12. below).
3. What's Next for (U.S.) Internet Net Neutrality, in Congress, in the FCC / FTC and the federal courts--will the federal courts stop the FCC's attempt to do away with the Title II net neutrality rules?
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| Team Internet Is Far From Done | eff.org |
4. Should the Internet Governance Forum be "allowed to die" (like the NetMundial Initiative)?
5. China's 5th World Internet Conference in 2018: Even Bigger, Broader, Bolder?
I totally agree on what I just heard “Big names are here, #WuzhenSummit is the Davos for #DigitalEconomy” #WorldInternetConference pic.twitter.com/j0CJ63J9hu— Miguel Ángel Margáin (@MA_Margain) December 4, 2017
- "The Chinese government is aggressively moving to attract international support for its vision for internet rule-making and management, while the United States government appears largely missing in action."--Ryan Hass
6. Will ICANN be ready for EU GDPR compliance on 25 May 2018?
- "We'll need to move quickly"--Goran Marby, ICANN President and CEO.
- "... we believe that compliance with the GDPR will have an impact on the WHOIS system, and thus the domain name space ... we need to work together to find the right balance between the current WHOIS services and compliance with local laws ..."--14 Nov 2017 Letter from ICANN (Akram Atallah & Theresa Swinehart) | ICANN.org (pdf) (emphasis added).
- More info: EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ICANN WHOIS.
- WP29 (pdf): "... the unlimited publication of personal data of individual domain name holders raises serious concerns regarding the lawfulness of such practice under the current European Data Protection directive (95/46/EC), especially regarding the necessity to have a legitimate purpose and a legal ground for such processing. Determining whether (and to what extent) these concerns are justified is ultimately for the DPAs [Data Protection Authorities] to decide, although the primary responsibility for ensuring compliance with the law is with the data controller(s) ..."
- Protection of personal data | European Commission | ec.europa.eu. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most important change in data privacy regulation in 20 years."--EU GDPR | eugdpr.org.
- Data Protection/Privacy Issues | ICANN.org: "The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was adopted by the European Union (EU) on 14 April 2016 and takes effect on 25 May 2018 uniformly across the EU countries." See also News Review 2017 Dec 24: 2) ICANN News .... d. GDPR
7. Will NTIA extend the Cooperative Agreement with Verisign on or before November 30, 2018, and specifically, what will happen to .com pricing (long-term)? Will the U.S. government allow ICANN and Verisign exploit legacy gTLD .com registrants the way ICANN and Verisign already exploit legacy gTLD .net registrants?
8. Will ICANN "roll the root zone KSK" in 2018 or "break the internet" in the process?
- Root KSK Rollover Project | ICANN.org 18 Dec 2017: "The ICANN org is today announcing that it will not roll the root zone KSK in the first quarter of 2018. We have decided that we do not yet have enough information to set a specific date for the rollover."
9. What will be the outcomes of ICANN litigation in 2018?
- Any new litigation not yet filed (pdf).
10. What will the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division do about .WEB, Verisign and ICANN?
Editor's note: As I noted last week, ICANN mismanaged its ill-conceived and misbegotten expansion of gTLDs from just 22 to over 1200, rejecting the advice of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (pdf) and U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (pdf) with regard to competition, pricing power, and consumer (registrant) protection. The above US DOJ letter was sent to ICANN by NTIA in Dec 2008 (pdf).
UPDATE 9 Jan 9 2018: DOJ closes .WEB investigation (no action)--Verisign, Inc. Form 8-K, Jan 9, 2018, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission:
"Item 7.01. Regulation FD Disclosure.
As the Company (Verisign, Inc.) previously disclosed, on January 18, 2017, the Company received a Civil Investigative Demand from the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) requesting certain material related to the Company becoming the registry operator for the .web gTLD. On January 9, 2018, the DOJ notified the Company that this investigation was closed. Verisign previously announced on August 1, 2016, that it had provided funds for Nu Dot Co’s successful bid for the .web gTLD and the Company anticipates that Nu Dot Co will now seek to execute the .web Registry Agreement with ICANN and thereafter assign it to Verisign upon consent from ICANN." (emphasis added)
See also: News Review | New gTLD .WEB, ICANN & Verisign, What's Next?
11. What will happen to the ICANN Reviews, including the still suspended SSR2 (by unilateral action of the ICANN Board of Directors on Oct 28, 2017, with AC/SOs leadership acquiescence)?
- Competition, Consumer Trust, and Consumer Choice Review (CCT) (Bad Omen: "I am resigning as a member of the Review Team effectively immediately. Do not associate my name with the Review Team's report."--Stanley M. Besen, Senior Consultant, Charles River Associates, June 25, 2017.)
- Registration Directory Service Review (RDS-WHOIS2)
- Security, Stability, and Resiliency of the DNS (SSR2) (still suspended since Oct 28, 2017, by the ICANN Board of Directors and AC/SOs leadership. See also: News Review Dec 17: US Gov NTIA Rebukes ICANN Board and SSR2 mail list.
12. Will the global internet community begin taking steps to reform or replace ICANN in 2018, including at PP-18, ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2018 | Dubai, UAE 29 Oct - 16 Nov 2018, or just establish a new, competing root?
Background:
"The ITU has problems, but there is no other organization that includes most of the world. In particular, 14 out of 18 board members at ICANN come from the U.S. and allies. The majority of world Internet users aren't represented. This is unsustainable."--circleid.com (emphasis added).
Is Multi-Stakeholder Internet Governance Dying? | Electronic Frontier Foundation | eff.org: "... there is a strong tendency for ICANN working groups to be stacked with private sector stakeholders such as lawyers for intellectual property rights holders and the domain name industry, who are able to dominate discussions, to obstruct attempts at compromise, and to push for one-sided outcomes, such as the right for a single company to control a generic word domain. As a result, ICANN, although notionally multi-stakeholder, in practice fails to fulfil the criterion of balance. Its processes do not place a priority on the facilitation of understanding and consensus between warring stakeholder groups, and this feeds politicking and strategic behavior. Even many industry stakeholders acknowledge this shortcoming; for example Jonathan Matkowsky, who works for a digital threat management company, said in an ICANN mailing list post recently, “It's very sad to see the open Internet breaking down as a result of the multistakeholder process failing to work.”" (emphasis added)
APC Priorities for the 12th Internet Governance Forum | Association for Progressive Communications: "being influential in ICANN requires a degree of effort and consistency which is difficult to sustain ... even in the IGF the fragility of the multistakeholder approach is evident as participation from governmental and business actors appears to be tailing off."
A Closer Look at Why Russia Wants an Independent Internet | circleid.com: "the ICANN board in 2016. The Internet doesn't look like this anymore."
Russia Will Build Its Own Internet Directory, Citing US Information Warfare | DefenseOne.com."In 2014, the U.S. cleverly announced it would give control of the DNS database to a non-governmental international body of stakeholders, a process to be run by the California-based Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. “Now, when China stands up and says, ‘We want a seat at the table of internet governance,’ the U.S. can say, ‘No. The internet should be stateless.’ They’re in a much stronger position to make that argument today than they were before,” Matthew Prince, co-founder of the company Cloudflare, told Defense One at the time. In a statement Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov framed Russia’s desire for an alternative DNS as essential to “protecting it from possible external influence.” “We all know who the chief administrator of the global internet is. And due to its volatility, we have to think about how to ensure our national security,” Peskov said ... The move follows Russia’s 2016 launch of its own segregated military internet for top-secret communication, called the Closed Data Transfer Segment, modeled slightly after the U.S. Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, or JWICS. (emphasis and links added).
ICANN | Electronic Frontier Foundation | eff.org: "ICANN's susceptibility to capture has been no more evident than in the excessive deference given to the interests of intellectual property owners." Read also Why Did ICANN Become a Member of Trademark Lobbyist Group INTA? | DomainMondo.com Oct 15, 2015.Editor's note: remember, the global internet community, including domain name registrants, never chose ICANN, the U.S. government did. ICANN is a California corporate monopoly controlled primarily by the special interests mentioned above by EFF.org (gTLD registry operators and registry service providers, registrars, trademark lawyers, big tech (mostly U.S.) companies, and other special interests, lawyers, and lobbyists), who collectively are often referred to as the "ICANN community" which does not represent the global internet community and therefore is unable to reflect the global public interest. It should be a priority to reform or replace ICANN and its "ICANN community" with a more representative, balanced organization, with the ability to provide consumer (registrant) protections, and act as a competent and responsible steward of the global internet DNS, a global public resource, in accordance with the principles of RFC 1591.
2) ICANN news
- Competition, Consumer Trust, and Consumer Choice Review Team – New Sections to Draft Report of Recommendations 8 Jan 2018 23:59 UTC
- Enhancing Accountability - Recommendations for Diversity 14 Jan 2018 23:59 UTC
- Recommendations to Improve ICANN's Office of Ombudsman (IOO) 14 Jan 2018 23:59 UTC
- Recommendations to Improve ICANN Staff Accountability 14 Jan 2018 23:59 UTC
- Recommendations on ICANN Jurisdiction 14 Jan 2018 23:59 UTC
- Operating Standards for ICANN's Specific Reviews 15 Jan 2018 23:59 UTC
3) Names, Domains & Trademarks
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| MMX shares are priced in GBX Pence Sterling not US Dollars |
Still think new gTLDs are a great business opportunity?
• China closed more than 13,000 websites in past three years reports China's state news agency Xinhua: The Chinese government says all countries regulate the internet, and its rules are aimed at ensuring "national security and social stability" ... users themselves were punished for sharing sensitive news and commentary, with prison terms ranging from "five days to eleven years."--"These moves have a powerful deterrent effect," said Wang Shengjun, vice chairman of the Chinese parliament’s standing committee--usatoday.com.
• How Europe's New Internet Laws Threaten Freedom of Expression | ForeignAffairs.com
• Google & Cybercrime: A year ago, a grand jury in Palm Beach County, Florida, investigated fraud and abuse in the addiction industry and found that gaming Google searches is a common tool for criminals to lure addicts into questionable and sometimes dangerous treatment. Addiction treatment in America is driven by effectively paying to acquire patients, in the form of digital marketing or so-called patient lead acquisition. Google is at the center of it all. There’s big money involved. "A midsize addiction treatment center can easily shell out $1 million a month or more for Google AdWords."--Why It Took Google So Long to End Shady Rehab Center Ads | Bloomberg.com. [Editor's note: in September, Google announced plans to stop accepting ads for rehab centers.]
• Has the New York Times Made Gloria Steinem's Original 1998 Defense of Bill Clinton Disappear? | newsbusters.org: "... Steinem sent her feminist credentials into the toilet in March 1998 when, in a Times op-ed, she defended Bill Clinton against the charges which eventually led to his impeachment later that year. The link to that op-ed in the previous paragraph was found in a public library database. That's because I couldn't locate it in multiple searches at the Times website ..."
• Ten Reasons Libraries Are Still Better Than the Internet | AmericanLibrariesMagazine.org
• How Facebook's Secret Unit Created Digital Propaganda Troll Armies To Influence Elections | ZeroHedge.com: "how a secret unit of Facebook has helped create troll armies for governments around the world including India for digital propaganda to influence elections."
• The Internet: 10 predictions for 2018 | DiploFoundation | diplomacy.edu
5) The Five Most Read Posts in 2017 on DomainMondo.com:
1. News Review | Esther Dyson Interview, ICANN Founding Board Chair
2. News Review | RySG Requests $$$ and "Detailed Accounting" From ICANN
3. News Review | ICANN Pays Senior VP Sally Costerton Secret Contract $$$
4. News Review: ICANN Interactive Webinar, Editor's Comment on DNS Abuse
5. News Review | Report: ICANN's New gTLDs As Global DNS MalwareTop 3 Most Read this past week:
1. News Review | Domain Name Registrations Decline Worldwide Q3 2017 Dec 24
2. Investors Warned By FINRA Not To Get Fooled By Bitcoin Scams (video) Dec 26
3. A Lesson in Money: Venezuelans Want U.S. Dollars NOT Cryptocurrency Dec 28
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo
2017-12-17
News Review: US Gov NTIA Rebukes ICANN Board; IGF 2017 Dec 17-21
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1) a. US Gov NTIA Rebukes ICANN Board of Directors over its interference with SSR2:
For background read on Domain Mondo:
Present status of SSR2 Review Team work? Still SUSPENDED (another team member just quit) (source: SSR2 mail list).
[Editor's note: I don't think the ICANN Board actually intended to sabotage the Security and Stability Review (SSR2) by taking the unilateral (and unprecedented) action of suspending the SSR2 Review Team's (SSR2-RT) work, but the effect may have been the same, with the suspension now approaching two months in duration (since Oct 28). Nor is it clear what, if anything, the acquiescing AC/SOs' "leadership" is doing to re-start the review. I wouldn't be surprised if more members of the Review Team resign before the end of the month. They were clearly trying to do a thorough, conscientious job, for the global internet community, before being undercut by the ICANN Board and AC/SOs leadership. I, like many others, still do not really understand why anyone was feeling so threatened by the SSR2 Review Team work plan, particularly compared to all of the obviously dysfunctional and incompetent ICANN Working Groups and Review Teams whose work ICANN regularly funds, accepts, and implements.]
1) b. Internet Governance Forum, IGF 2017, Geneva, Dec 17-21
IGF 2017 | Geneva 17-21 Dec 2017 | Internet Governance Forum
UPDATES: (1) My IGF 2017 lesson learned: remote participation wasn’t a viable alternative way to participate | LinguaSynaptica.com
(2) IGF 2017 day 2 session: “ICANN – Looking ahead: Challenges and Opportunities”
Internet Governance Forum 2017 (IGF 2017) video above streamed LIVE on Dec 19, 2017 (session starts at 12:42).
Local Time GenevaThe Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a global multistakeholder platform that facilitates the discussion of public policy issues pertaining to the internet.
Full Schedule: https://igf2017.intgovforum.org/ (note: 'day zero' is Dec 17);
- Online participation. UPDATE: better consult this guide first.
- Daily news and updates: Internet Governance Forum | GIP | dig.watch.
- 17 December 15:00–16:30 How Digital activists are shaping the evolution of the Internet: the voice of civil society in ICANN
- 17 December 16:30–18:00 The DNS and Emerging Identifiers (including DOA)
- 19 December 09:00–10:30 [3am-4:30am ET] Multistakeholder governance of the Domain Name System, lessons learned for other IG issues (WS76) – CCWG IG Session.
- 19 December 16:10–17:10 [10:10-11:10 ET] ICANN Open Forum “ICANN – Looking ahead: - Challenges and Opportunities” (OF50): "This Open and Interactive Session will consider a range of areas ICANN is addressing including ongoing accountability work; the work of the Community in preparing for a potential new application process for gTLDs; the on-going work with respect to emerging Data Protection (DP) and privacy developments including the implementation of new DP legislation in Europe (GDPR) ..." Scheduled speakers include ICANN President & CEO Goran Marby and the ICANN Board Chair Cherine Chalaby.
- The ever-expanding universe of Internet events and initiatives: "... NETmundial Initiative ... funding dried up not too long after its initiator and main champion ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade, left ICANN. This is possibly the only initiative in the Internet governance space ever to have been allowed to die, with pretty much nobody mourning its loss ..." (emphasis and link added)
2) ICANN news
a. VeriSign o.com proposal (pdf) cleared for auction:
For more information see Proposal 2017038 from Verisign on this "buried" ICANN.org webpage.
b. ICANN Board Members' Conflicts of Interest ICANN.org: ICANN Officers and Board Members Statements of Interest Summary relating to ICANN matters Dec 13, 2017. [Editor's note: for background read News Review Nov 26, 2017 | ICANN Board Executive Committee, Conflicts of Interest | DomainMondo.com]
c. Self-Serving: ICANN Organization Publishes Reports on the Review of the Community Priority Evaluation (CPE) Process | ICANN.org: "The findings will be considered by the Board Accountability Mechanisms Committee (BAMC) when the BAMC reviews the remaining pending Reconsideration Requests as part of the Reconsideration process."
d. Almost Totally Useless: ICANN Publishes Updated gTLD Marketplace Health Index | ICANN.org: "statistics and trends related to generic top-level domains (gTLDs)." [Editor's note: the word "robust" should be banned from use by anyone at ICANN.]
e. GDPR Data Protection & Privacy Update: ICANN org published info on how to submit a proposed model for providing registration directory services and meeting other data retention requirements while remaining compliant with EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
f. Overstaffed & Overpaid: ICANN Management Organization Chart | ICANN.org: 01 Dec 2017 management-org-01dec17-en.pdf (pdf 1.92MB)
g. ICANN.org announced that Kim Davies, Director of Technical Services, Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), has been appointed to the position of Vice President, IANA Services and President, PTI.
h. is for holiday--ICANN Holiday Closure Schedule | ICANN.org--"... all ICANN offices will be closed as of 20:00 UTC on Friday 22 December, and will re-open on Tuesday, 02 January 2018. During this time, the processing of New gTLD Applications and service requests for gTLD Registries and Registrars will be suspended ..."
3) Names, Domains & Trademarks
• Domain Names:
• GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY): Capital International Investors disclosed on December 8, 2017 a 10.9% stake in the world's largest domain name registrar GoDaddy.
• China Watch: Impact Of Amended Anti-Unfair Competition Law On Advertising And Marketing In China | Mondaq.com
4) ICYMI Internet Domain News
• Censorship, Internet Freedom:
5) Five Most Read Posts this past week (page views Sun-Sat) on DomainMondo.com:
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo
For more information see Proposal 2017038 from Verisign on this "buried" ICANN.org webpage.
b. ICANN Board Members' Conflicts of Interest ICANN.org: ICANN Officers and Board Members Statements of Interest Summary relating to ICANN matters Dec 13, 2017. [Editor's note: for background read News Review Nov 26, 2017 | ICANN Board Executive Committee, Conflicts of Interest | DomainMondo.com]
c. Self-Serving: ICANN Organization Publishes Reports on the Review of the Community Priority Evaluation (CPE) Process | ICANN.org: "The findings will be considered by the Board Accountability Mechanisms Committee (BAMC) when the BAMC reviews the remaining pending Reconsideration Requests as part of the Reconsideration process."
d. Almost Totally Useless: ICANN Publishes Updated gTLD Marketplace Health Index | ICANN.org: "statistics and trends related to generic top-level domains (gTLDs)." [Editor's note: the word "robust" should be banned from use by anyone at ICANN.]
e. GDPR Data Protection & Privacy Update: ICANN org published info on how to submit a proposed model for providing registration directory services and meeting other data retention requirements while remaining compliant with EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
f. Overstaffed & Overpaid: ICANN Management Organization Chart | ICANN.org: 01 Dec 2017 management-org-01dec17-en.pdf (pdf 1.92MB)
g. ICANN.org announced that Kim Davies, Director of Technical Services, Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), has been appointed to the position of Vice President, IANA Services and President, PTI.
h. is for holiday--ICANN Holiday Closure Schedule | ICANN.org--"... all ICANN offices will be closed as of 20:00 UTC on Friday 22 December, and will re-open on Tuesday, 02 January 2018. During this time, the processing of New gTLD Applications and service requests for gTLD Registries and Registrars will be suspended ..."
3) Names, Domains & Trademarks
"Always prefer .com, unless you are going for a country-specific site like selling products only in India (.in) ... So, if you cannot find .com and you are being offered a different extension .org, .in, .net, etc., then change the name and start the search again."--techfactslive.com.• ccTLD .au: Review of Australia’s .au domain management | gov.au: consultation period ends December 18, 2017 17:00 AEDT.
• GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY): Capital International Investors disclosed on December 8, 2017 a 10.9% stake in the world's largest domain name registrar GoDaddy.
• China Watch: Impact Of Amended Anti-Unfair Competition Law On Advertising And Marketing In China | Mondaq.com
4) ICYMI Internet Domain News
- Dozens of Activists, Including British Journalist, Deported Ahead of WTO meet in Argentina | NewsClick.in: "Sally Burch, involved with JustNet Coalition, has been actively working on WTO, digital monopolies, Internet freedom, and autonomous weapons."
- News Review | FCC Votes To Kill U.S. Internet Net Neutrality, Video Replay, in a 3-2 vote, negating Title II net neutrality rules.
- FCC, FTC announce partnership to police internet after net neutrality repeal | TheHill.com
- The Net Neutrality Debate Hinges on Defining the Internet | IEEE Spectrum | ieee.org: telecommunications service OR information service
- New web browsing security tool arrives: DNS over TLS | ZDNet.com: "Tenta DNS, an open-source DNS over TLS resolver, will help preserve users' privacy after the fall of net neutrality."
5) Five Most Read Posts this past week (page views Sun-Sat) on DomainMondo.com:
1. Bitcoin Futures $XBT Start Trading Sunday, 6pm ET, on Cboe's CFE (video)
2. News Review | FCC Votes To Kill U.S. Internet Net Neutrality, Video Replay
3. Tech Review | Bitcoin Futures Start Trading On CME Globex Monday Dec 18
4. Numerai: A Hedge Fund Built By Data Scientists & Artificial Intelligence
5. Federal Reserve FOMC Interest Rates Announcement & Press Conference
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo
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