Featured Blogs

An Open Response to “Stop Obama’s Internet Giveaway”

It seems necessary to publicly address the arguments posed in "Stop Obama's Internet Giveaway" by L. Gordon Crovitz of the Wall Street Journal. If, as Crovitz suggested, the President were truly "giving away the Internet," there would be mass outrage. After all, the Internet has become a primary driver of global commerce. Internet users, businesses, civil society members and Internet operators have come together to approve a set of proposals to make the Internet stronger and more open. more

A New Low for the ICANN Multistakeholder Process

ICANN's dismissal of public comments submitted on the .COM Registry Amendment wasn't surprising given that it recently dismissed the public comments on the .Org Renewal Agreement, but the speed and disdain which it demonstrated was. Despite public pronouncements by ICANN President and CEO, Gören Marby and assurances from ICANN Board Chair, Maarten Botterman, that public comments were welcomed and that ICANN would take them seriously... more

Evaluating Starlink Performance: Implications for Digital Equity and Regulatory Compliance

Despite its promise of universal access, Starlink often fails to meet broadband benchmarks across key markets. New data reveals fluctuating performance and raises questions about reliability, digital equity, and tiered service models. more

Free the Fiber Now

In a previous blog post I mentioned that the FCC had taken away restrictions to allow broadband supplied by E-Rate funding to be used to provide free WiFi for the public. That's a good idea that will provide some relief for areas with little or no other broadband. But the announcement raises a more fundamental question - why was such a restriction in place to begin with? more

Dictators Could Rule the Internet: A Response to Robert McDowell and Gordon Goldstein

The Obama administration's proposals to regulate the Internet according to common carrier rules have set off a storm of opposition from carrier interests, whose scale and reach have been impressive. The arguments they muster are fatuous and deceitful. The Internet is not what the carriers own or have created; the Internet is what they seek to extract money from. "Regulating the Internet" is not the issue; regulating the carriers is. more

Digital Sovereignty and Internet Standards

There have been a number of occasions when the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has made a principled decision upholding users' expectations of privacy in their use of IETF-standardised technologies. (Either that, or they were applying their own somewhat liberal collective bias and to the technologies they were working on!) The first major such incident that I can recall is the IETF's response to the US CALEA measures. more

IGF Call for Public Comments on the Definition of Multistakeholder Participation Mechanisms

Over the past weeks, communities gathering experts from government, business, Civil Society, and the academic and technical communities, have been working through open mailing lists and online virtual meetings on IGF Best Practices. The discussion was documented by independent experts that will feed into five 90 minute Forums in Istanbul and that will in turn report into a Best Practices Main Session. more

Collaboration: A Means to Boost Enterprise Network Protection

In an age where cyber threats and attacks have reached a point of ubiquity, managing your organization's network security single-handedly may no longer be sufficient. The increasing volume and sophistication of threats, not to mention the continuous advancement in attack tools and their perpetrators' skills and know-how, has led to concerns on whether potential targets can keep up. more

Starlink’s New Business Broadband

Starlink has quietly updated its business broadband offerings. The original plan for businesses was $500 per month with a two-terabyte data cap. If a customer exceeded the data cap, the speed reduced to 1 Mbps for the remainder of the month unless a customer bought additional broadband at $1 per gigabyte. Starlink business comes with a premium antenna from HP at a one-time cost of $2,500. more

FISMA Focus: Continuously Monitoring the Cyber-Levee

NIST's release of their initial public draft of SP 800-137, Guide for Continuous Monitoring of Information Systems and Organizations will create a set of challenges for the federal cybersecurity community. Agencies and contractors will need to shape the document through the multi-stage revision process while continuing to implement their own continuous monitoring measures. more

Recent Case in Federal Court Shows Inefficiencies of Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act

A recent case1 from a federal court in Kentucky shows why the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (15 U.S.C. 1125(d) - the "ACPA") can be - when compared to the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy ("UDRP") - a relatively inefficient way of resolving a domain name dispute. Here is a quick rundown of the facts. Defendant owned a business directly competitive to plaintiff ServPro. Plaintiff had used its mark and trade dress since the 1960's... more

When UDRP Consolidation Requests Go Too Far

Although including multiple domain names in a single UDRP complaint can be a very efficient way for a trademark owner to combat cybersquatting, doing so is not always appropriate. One particularly egregious example involves a case that originally included 77 domain names -- none of which the UDRP panel ordered transferred to the trademark owner, simply because consolidation against the multiple registrants of the domain names was improper. more

8 Facts About 3-Member Panels in UDRP Cases

Proceedings under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) can be heard by either a one- or three-member panel. Here are eight important facts that every complainant (trademark owner) and respondent (domain name registrant) should consider when deciding whether to select one or three members... Either party - complainant or respondent - has an opportunity to select a three-member panel... more

Internet Society Seeks Nominations for 2017 Board of Trustees

Are you passionate about preserving the global, open Internet? Do you have experience in Internet standards, development or public policy? If so, please consider applying for one of the open seats on the Internet Society Board of Trustees. The Internet Society serves a pivotal role in the world as a leader on Internet policy, technical, economic, and social matters, and as the organizational home of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). more

Annual Review of .fr ccTLD, With Growth of +6% in 2021

Like 2020, the year 2021 saw exceptional conditions, with the persistence of the health crisis. As the registry for the .FR TLD, Afnic was well placed to observe the adaptation of French society to these exceptional conditions, particularly from the viewpoint of the digital transition process. Following on from a historical record in .fr domain name creations in 2020 (793,441), the 776,514 in 2021 have confirmed the take-up of digital benefits by French users, with registrations still up 12% as compared to 2019. more