Civil Society Workshop on

Domain Name Policy and Free Expression:

“Keep the Core Neutral”

Wednesday 27 June 2007 (13:00 – 15:30)
at the ICANN Board Meeting
Caribe Hilton Hotel ~ San Juan, Puerto Rico

Civil society’s “Keep the Core Neutral” workshop will explore freedom of expression issues in the policy development process to introduce new generic top-level domains (gtlds).

As the ICANN community debates policy options to allow new top-level domains, it must consider important issues that impact what ideas may be expressed in a domain name. The workshop aims to provide a public discussion point in the ICANN policy development process for new top-level domains.

The workshop will address new gtld policy issues such as:

  • should ICANN remain content neutral in national policy debates when evaluating applications for domains?
  • how can ICANN protect freedom of expression rights in domain name policy?
  • what is the proper role for governments in approving or rejecting top-level domains?
  • what is the appropriate balance between trademarks and free expression rights in domain names?
  • who should decide which ideas are too controversial to be allowed in a top-level domain?
  • how to balance competing rights to use the same words in domain names?
  • should trademark owners be given prior registration privileges before other rights holders?
  • should a controversial domain name be rejected or delayed?

Workshop Speakers:

  • Joichi Ito, ICANN board member and Creative Commons board member
  • Christine Haight Farley, Law professor at American University
  • Michael Palage, Attorney and ex-board member of ICANN
  • Milton Mueller, Chairman of ICANN’s Non-Commercial Users Constituency, professor at Syracuse University and founding partner of Internet Governance Project
  • Wendy Seltzer, Visiting professor at Northeastern University Law School and Fellow at Harvard Law’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  • Wolfgang Kleinwäechter, Professor at University of Aarhus
  • Ram Mohan, Vice President of Business Operations and Chief Technology Officer at Afilias Limited
  • Tan Tin Wee, Professor at National University of Singapore

Moderator:

* Robin Gross, IP Justice Executive Director

“Keep the Core Neutral” workshop is organized by ICANN’s Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) and the At-Large-Advisory Committee (ALAC)

See also ALAC/NCUC Geo-tlds workshop on 26 June (12:30 – 14:30)

More info:
ICANN San Juan Board Meeting
Non-Commercial User’s Constituency (NCUC)
At-Large-Advisory Committee (ALAC)
IP Justice New gtld info page