Post Tagged with: "internet governance"

All Your Internets Belong to US, Continued: The Bodog.com Case

Imagine a scenario in which a country enacts a law that bans the sale of asbestos and includes the power to seize the assets of any company selling the product anywhere in the world. The country tests the law by obtaining a court order to seize key assets of a Canadian company, whose operations with hundreds of employees takes a major hit. The Canadian government is outraged, promising to support the company in its efforts to restore its operations.

That is the opening of my technology law column this week (Toronto Star version, homepage version) which continues by noting this scenario became reality last week, though the product was not asbestos and the Canadian government has yet to respond. The case involves Bodog.com, a Canadian-owned online sports gaming site and the country doing the seizing was the United States. Supporting online gaming operations will undoubtedly make governments somewhat squeamish, but the broader implications of last week’s seizure touch on millions of websites and Internet companies who now find themselves subject to U.S. jurisdiction.

March 6, 2012 — 30 comments — Columns

All Your Internets Belong To US, Continued

Appeared on March 4, 2012 in the Toronto Star as Bodog.com case sends warning to all Canadian websites Imagine a scenario in which a country enacts a law that bans the sale of asbestos and includes the power to seize the assets of any company selling the product anywhere in […]

March 5, 2012 — 1 comment — Columns Archive

Internet Governance Battle Heats Up as Governments Demand Greater Powers

A simmering battle over governance of the Internet is set to take centre stage in California this week as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California-based non-profit corporation charged with the principal responsibility for maintaining the Internet’s domain name system, holds one of its regular meetings in Silicon Valley.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that since its creation in 1998, ICANN has faced a wide range of critics – Internet users frustrated at the lack of accountability, business groups concerned that the policy making process is too slow and uncertain, and governments wondering why matters related to the Internet are vested in a private organization and not an entity such as the United Nations.

March 14, 2011 — 7 comments — Columns

Internet Governance Battle Heats Up as Governments Demand Greater Powers

Appeared in the Toronto Star on March 13, 2011 as Governments’ ominous thirst to control the web A simmering battle over governance of the Internet is set to take centre stage in California this week as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California-based non-profit corporation charged […]

March 14, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — Columns Archive