Internet Governance

3 Strategies for Keeping ICANN and IANA On-Mission and Out of Politics

Over the last year, the ICANN community has been raging on about two issues: the looming IANA transition away from the US government, and how to ensure the organization is accountable to all the Internet's stakeholders. While the issues have run on separate tracks, they both boil down to one question: can ICANN be trusted to be a good steward of the Internet's future? The answer to this question will go a long way in deciding ICANN's future. more

ICANN Accountability Proposal Enhances Power of Governments Over Internet, Risks IANA Transition

While most of the recommendations included in the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) Report are much needed reforms to ICANN's accountability mechanisms, the proposal also contains a fundamental flaw, which jeopardizes its overall acceptance and risks delaying the IANA transition process further: it changes the role of governments from "advisory" to "decisional" over ICANN's governance, and it separately enhances the power of governments over ICANN's board of directors. more

ICANN Released Its Draft for New Top-Level Domains, 45 Day Comment Period Now Open

In follow up to its earlier announcement this year regarding the relaxation of rules for the introduction of new Top-Level Domains, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) yesterday released a draft version of the Applicant Guidebook for those interested in applying for a new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD). Although application comes with a hefty entry fee of close to $200,000, the development of new gTLD introductions will be of particular interest to trademark owners as well as any other company involved with domain names. Among various issues, the guidebook aims at addressing concerns such as who would qualify for '.apple' or '.amazon' gTLDs. more

ICANN Virtual Meetings: A Newcomer’s Reflections for the Future Newcomers

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a not-for-profit corporation, which essentially functions as a governing body for the Internet and brings together representatives from government, civil society, academia, the private sector, and the technical community. Despite its importance in crafting policies related to world wide web development, a significant portion of digital rights lawyers underestimates ICANN’s regulatory role in contrast to one of the national governments. more

Paris Cyber Agreement Has Grown to More Than 450 Signatories

The "Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace," announced by French President at the Paris Peace Forum on November 13, has attracted more than 450 signatories. more

EURid Pauses Brexit Plans

When the UK announced its intention to withdraw from the European Union it was clear to some of us that this would cause complications with .eu and possibly other domain name extensions. Over the past year, it's become clear that the European Commission, who mandate the .eu domain name policy, weren't interested in providing a "soft landing" for impacted registrants of .eu domain names. more

Testing, Testing, Testing for a More Secure (Internet) World

Reading up on COVID-19 and Zoom/Boris Johnson outcry yesterday, an analogy struck me between the two: the lack of testing. In both cases, to truly know how safe and secure we are, testing needs to be stepped up considerably. This post focuses on cybersecurity. Over the past days and weeks, more and more organisations have switched to digital products and services to sustain working from home, to keep productivity up and to be connected. more

Protect Access to Safe Online Pharmacies Through Cyber Policy

The high cost of prescription drugs has created a health and economic crisis in the U.S. Personal prescription importation gives Americans a lifeline for affording safe medications. As prescription drug prices continue to skyrocket, the Internet has made it possible for Americans to access medications safely at considerable cost savings. As I've shared previously on CircleID, safety and affordability are the most important considerations when choosing an online pharmacy. more

Russia Is Studying China’s Legislative Experience in Fighting Internet Corruption, Cyber-Terrorism

Russian State Duma deputy, chairman of the Committee on Security and Corruption Control Vasily Piskarev told Russian reporters on Tuesday that Russia is studying China's legislative experience in dealing with corruption, cyber-terrorism and cross-border crime on the Internet. more

EFF Founder John Perry Barlow Has Died

Electronic Frontier Foundation founder John Perry Barlow, has died at the age of 70, according to a statement issued by the Foundation. more

Dissecting the ISOC/PIR/Ethos Transaction (With Ways to Help Ensure PIR’s 2002 Commitments)

On February 11th, Professor Ben Leff of American University Washington College of Law (WCL) spoke on the panel: The Controversial Sale of the .ORG Registry: The Conversation We Should be Having as a scholar of charitable and nonprofit law. On February 21st, he posted a blog piece on WCL's PIJIP blog outlining and expanding his presentation. With Professor Leff's permission, I repost his piece on CircleID to join the timely discussion taking place here on the .ORG sale. more

Geist on the Bodog.com Seizure Case

Reporting further on the recent Bodog.com domain name seizure case based on gambling charges, Michael Geist writes: "In the Bodog.com case, U.S. officials targeted a site with limited connections to the country as the site had licensed out the bodog.com domain name in 2006 and stopped accepting U.S. bettors late last year. The legal issues surrounding its operations will be played out in court, but the manner in which the bodog.com name was seized could have a lasting impact on Internet governance." more

AI Already Succeeding in Most Creative Tasks and Getting Better by the Day

It is redundant to point out how much progress AI applications made during the past few years. What is escaping the attention of many people, however, is that in most creative areas, there are already fully working consumer-grade tools based on generative AI that can produce output similar to that of a human with above-average capabilities, and there are many more on the way. These tools also happen to be rather affordable, making them accessible to a large amount of people. more

Internet Companies in Negotiations for Agreement on Code of Conduct in China

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, in negotiations with other Internet companies and human rights organizations, have reached an agreement on a voluntary code of conduct for activities in China and other countries that censor the Internet. The participants are reviewing the agreement for final approval. more

Toward an ITU Renaissance

For nearly fifty years now, a significant portion of my professional engineering and lawyering life has been threaded through the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). It has included all of its multiple sectors, working on the inside for two Secretary-Generals and running its Relations between Members and Regulations Division, writing two books including "The ITU in a Changing World" with the late George Codding, representing the U.S. at several conferences... more