Stephane Van Gelder - Governance

Emergency website takedown bill shelved, for now…

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:53:50 +0200

The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) will not be passed.

Supporters of the bill ran out of time to put it before Congress and must now wait until after the US mid-term elections, at the very least.

Opponents of the bill remain cautious however. "Make no mistake (…) this bill will be back soon enough, and Congress will again need to hear from concerned citizens like you," wrote the Electronic Frontier Foundation on its website in a blog post entitled "Victory: Internet Censorship Bill is Delayed".

Some fear the bill would pass easily if put before Congress as both sides of the American political landscape seem to be in favour of legislation of this kind.

Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act threatens DNS

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:33:58 +0200

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has sent the US Senate Judiciary Committee a letter opposing the proposed Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA).

Here are a couple of excerpts from the letter.

"We, the undersigned, have played various parts in building a network called the Internet. We wrote and debugged the software; we defined the standards and protocols that talk over that network. Many of us invented parts of it. We're just a little proud of the social and economic benefits that our project, the Internet, has brought with it."

"If enacted, this legislation will risk fragmenting the Internet's global domain name system (DNS), create an environment of tremendous fear and uncertainty for technological innovation, and seriously harm the credibility of the United States in its role as a steward of key Internet infrastructure."

The full letter can be read here.

ICANN CEO speaks out in defense of multistakeholder model

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 14:29:02 +0200

ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom is intent on defending the Internet's multistakeholder governance model. INDOM photo.

One of the highlights of the Internet governance annual calendar, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is currently underway in Vilnius. As one of the attendees, ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom warned against the dangers of attempts by governments to control the Internet and exclude all the other parties that have made the Web a dynamic and fast-evolving medium.

If the Internet's governance was to be placed under the sole responsibility of the world's governments, Beckstrom posited during the UN-supported IGF, then the innovative nature of the Web could be in danger.

"Decisions on its future should reflect the widest possible range of views and the wisdom of the entire world community, not just governmental organizations," Beckstrom was quoted as saying.

I must confess to being in full agreement.

The IGF in Vilnius: much ado..?

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:49:08 +0200

Today (September 17) is the last day of the 5th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) meeting held in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. Previous meetings have been held yearly, starting in Athens in 2006 and then moving on to Rio, Hyderabad and Sharm El Sheikh. This meeting is the last in the current IGF schedule (although it appears a new 5-year round of meetings is set to be announced).

So what happened in Vilnius? Well I wasn't there so I'm obviously not in any position to answer that question, but according to people who were, not much. To be fair, the IGF isn't supposed to be anything other than a discussion forum, so the fact that nothing concrete comes out of the 4 days of meetings isn't surprising in itself. It's just that as ever, the discussions sound more partisan than constructive.

There's been the usual "ICANN vs governments" debate, with ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom defending his organisation's multistakeholder model. Several prominent members of the ICANN community were in attendance and spreading the good word, including Chairman of the Board Peter Dengate Thrush, newly nominated Board member (and ex French representative to the GAC) Bertrand de la Chapelle and GNSO Council Chair Chuck Gomes.

For an entertaining and offbeat look at what happened during the IGF in Vilnius, I recommend you have a gander at ex ICANN Manager of public participation Kieren McCarthy's entertainingly irreverent blog posts on the subject.