Policy & Regulation

Policy & Regulation / Most Viewed

Cuban “Technological Sovereignty” - a Walled Garden Strategy?

ToDus, a messaging application described as a "Cuban WhatsApp" and Apklis, a distribution site for Android mobile apps, were featured at the First Computerization Workshop held recently at the Universidad de Ciencias Informáticas (UCI). One might ask, why do we need a Cuban WhatsApp and Apklis when we already have WhatsApp itself and the Google Play Store? more

Narcotics Traffic Is Not Part of a Healthy Domain System

A stack contrast is emerging within the DNS between providers who tolerate blatantly illegal domain use and those who do not. Our study, just published here focuses on five U.S.-based providers, their policies, and their response to reports of opioid traffic within their registry or registrar. There are many providers, not covered here, who removed hundreds of domains selling opioids and I applaud their efforts. more

27 Countries Issue Joint Statement on ‘Advancing Responsible State Behavior in Cyberspace’

The joint statement was released on Monday at the United Nations ahead of the UN General Assembly's General Debate calling on all states to support the evolving framework and to join in ensuring "greater accountability and stability in cyberspace." more

The .EU Top-Level Domain Facing Radical Shake Up as a Result of the Proposed New European Regulation

In response to outdated Regulations in a rapidly changing world of domain names and internet governance, the European Commission earlier this year proposed a new Europen Regulation for the .EU Top Level Domain (TLD). more

EU Presidency Pushing Other Member States for Substantial Internet Surveillance

A leaked document by Statewatch reveals the current EU Presidency (Estonia) has been pushing the other Member States to strengthen indiscriminate internet surveillance and to follow in the footsteps of China regarding online censorship. more

2nd FCC Workshop on PSTN Transition Streaming Live Today

Today, December 14, 2011, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is holding the second of two workshops on the transition of the PSTN to new technologies. The workshop started streaming live this morning at 9:30am US Eastern. The FCC's note about the workshops mentions that people watching the live stream can send in questions to panelists using either of two methods... more

What If I Were Wrong About Edge-Caching?

Nicholas Thompson at Wired Blog sums up yesterday's Wall Street Journal piece on Google. To summarize his summary: Google's edge caching isn't new or evil; Lessig didn't shift gears on NN; Microsoft and Yahoo have been off the NN bandwagon since 2006; The Obama team still supports NN; Amazon's Kindle support is consistent with its NN support. Yet... yet... more

Clearing up the “logjam”: ICANN Must Drop its Request for a Unilateral Right to Amend the Agreements

A very rare thing happened in the GNSO Council meeting this week - the ICANN community spoke with one voice. Registries, registrars, non-commercial interests, new TLD applicants, IP owners and businesses unanimously and unambiguously agreed that giving ICANN a "unilateral right to amend" the registry and registrar agreements is not compatible with ICANN's bottom-up processes and poses a fundamental threat to the multi-stakeholder model. There is true consensus that this change should be rejected. more

U.S. Lawmakers Moving to Consider New Rules Imposing Stricter Federal Oversight on Cryptocurrencies

Reuters reports today that several top lawmakers have revealed a "bipartisan momentum is growing in the Senate and House of Representatives for action to address the risks posed by virtual currencies to investors and the financial system." more

New Registry Agreement, All Good?

In the run-up to the launch of new gTLDs, ICANN has been negotiating both of its main supplier contracts. The registrar contract (Registrar Accreditation Agreement or RAA) negotiations are now all but complete. A new contract draft has been posted for public comment and it now seems likely that in little over a month, this will become the official new 2013 RAA. more

EU Privacy Case Could Backfire, Turn EU into Data Island, Say Experts

Experts fear European Union court case attempting to keep personal data private could backfire and prove damaging to Europe. more

ICANN: A Concrete “Thin Contract” Proposal

It looks as if ICANN is going to require applicants for new TLDs to agree (in advance) not to negotiate a changed contract with ICANN. We agree that streamlining the process is in everyone's interest. Along those lines, we are proposing a substantially thinner contract that ICANN and new registries could use. Existing registries should also be allowed to sign up to this contract, if they wish. more

EFF: For ISPs to Retain Power to Censor the Internet, DNS Needs to Remain Leaky

EFF's Senior Legislative Counsel, Ernesto Falcon, in a post on Monday has argued that major ISPs in the U.S. -- the likes of Comcast, AT&T;, and Verizon -- are aggressively influencing legislators to stop the deployment of DNS over HTTPS (DoH), "a technology that will give users one of the biggest upgrades to their Internet privacy and security since the proliferation of HTTPS." more

On New Domains and ICANN Accountability, More Questions than Answers

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) went before a Congressional panel this week to defend its plan to create an unlimited number of new Internet domains (like .web, .food, etc.) I was a witness at the hearing, which made one thing clear: the "consensus" on new Internet domains is not as strong as ICANN would have us think. more

Networks and Nationalization

This post isn't about -- or isn't only about -- the use of computer technology to commit crimes. It's more about the use of computer technology to commit war. A few weeks ago, I was part of a conversation about the legal issues cyberwarfare raises. We were talking about various scenarios -- e.g., a hostile nation-state uses cyberspace to attack the U.S. infrastructure by crippling or shutting down a power grid, air traffic control systems, financial system, etc. Mostly, we were focusing on issues that went to the laws of war, such as how and when a nation-state that is the target of a cyberattack can determine the attack is war, rather than cybercrime or cyberterrorism. more