Post Tagged with: "domain names"

GAC_0031 by icannphotos (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/8Z8CzX

Government Control Over Internet Governance: Proposal Would Give the GAC Increased Power over ICANN Board Decisions

The debate over Internet governance for much of the past decade has often come down to a battle between ICANN and the ITU (a UN body), which in turn is characterized as a choice between a private-sector led, bottoms-up, consensus model (ICANN) or a governmental-controlled approach. The reality has always been far more complicated. The U.S. still maintains contractual control over ICANN, while all governments exert considerable power within the ICANN model through the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC).

While the GAC claims its role is merely to provide “advice” to ICANN, it often seems to take the view that its suggestions can’t be refused. Indeed, late on Friday, ICANN proposed a by-law change that would grant governments even greater control over its decision-making process. At the moment, ICANN looks to various supporting organizations to develop policies designed to represent the views of many different stakeholders, including the GAC. Where the GAC and the ICANN board disagree on a policy issue, the ICANN board decision governs provided that a simple majority of board members vote against the GAC advice and that ICANN provide an explanation for the decision.

ICANN is now proposing that the threshold be increased so that 2/3 of eligible ICANN board members would be required to vote against GAC advice in order to reject it.

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August 18, 2014 6 comments News
The Ring of ccTLDs #3 by Grey Hargreaves (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/9KttQB

Does Anyone Own a Country’s Domain Name?

Earlier this year, a group of U.S. litigants launched an unusual domain name lawsuit. The group consisted of family members of victims of terror attacks they claim were sponsored by the governments of Iran, Syria, and North Korea. The group had succeeded in winning over a billion dollars in damages in several lawsuits filed in U.S. courts.

Unable to collect, they sued the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body that administers the Internet’s domain name system. Their goal: seize the dot-ir, dot-sy, and dot-kp domain name extensions (the respective country-code domains) by ordering ICANN to transfer them as compensation.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes the notion of seizing a country’s domain name extension may sound implausible, but the case is proceeding through the U.S. court system with ICANN filing a brief late last month. ICANN is unsurprisingly seeking to dismiss the case, arguing that the domain name extensions are not property that is capable of seizure (I am a board member of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Canada’s dot-ca administrator, but this article represents my own views and not those of CIRA).

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August 12, 2014 Comments are Disabled Columns

Government of Quebec Loses Domain Name Dispute Over Quebec.com

The Government of Quebec has lost its complaint over the domain name Quebec.com.  In a unanimous panel decision that included Copyright Board of Canada board member Nelson Landry, the government failed to demonstrate bad faith and raised questions about why it waited 15 years to launch a complaint.

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March 25, 2014 3 comments News

The TPP IP Chapter Leaks: U.S. Wants New Regulations for Country-Code Domain Names

My series of posts on the leak of the Trans Pacific Partnership intellectual property chapter has highlighted Canada’s opposition to many U.S. proposals, U.S. demands for Internet provider liability that could lead to subscriber termination, content blocking, and ISP monitoring, copyright term extension, anti-counterfeiting provisions that are inconsistent with Bill […]

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November 19, 2013 6 comments News

CIRA’s Opportunity

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority released the results of its board of directors election yesterday and I was very pleased to be elected to the board with the largest number of votes of any candidate. I’m grateful to CIRA members for their support, particularly given the many excellent candidates who […]

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September 28, 2012 10 comments News