6 Jul, 2008: Public’ online spaces don’t carry speech, rights (Associated Press)
First Amendment protections generally do not extend to private property in the physical world, allowing a shopping mall to legally kick out a customer wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a smoking child. With online services becoming greater conduits than shopping malls for public communications, however, some advocacy groups believe the federal government needs to guarantee open access ...

6 Jul, 2008: ICAAN – Preventing Hatred v. Censorship of TLD Applications (Digital Journal)
With all the excitement over expansion of IP addresses to be expanded from 4-string to 6-string format, little has been reported on the current and proposed regulations to restrict new domain registration. Watchdogs are deeply concerned over censorship. ....

1 Jul, 2008: Work Remains For ICANN’s New Top Level Internet Domains (IP-Watch)
Internet Technical Body an Authority on Morality? ICANN announced the "biggest extension of the DNS [domain name system] in 40 years" after its decision last week to finish implementation of a new policy for introducing new top-level domains (TLDs). According to the timeline presented at the ICANN meeting in Paris, new TLDs to compete against the existing .com, .biz ...

6 Jun, 2008: Der Zoll hört mit (dradio.de)
EU-Kommission debattiert vertraulich über Anti-Piraterie-Abkommen. Vertreter aus 13 Nationen haben in Genf am Montag und Dienstag dieser Woche über ein internationales Abkommen zur Abwehr von Urheberrechtsverletzungen diskutiert. Nichtregierungsorganisationen warnen, dass unter Ausschluss kritischer Vertreter der Entwicklungsländer Fakten geschaffen werden sollen. Im Bereich von Computer und Medien würden vor allem die Interessen der großen Medienkonzerne und nicht die der ...

5 Jun, 2008: Speculation Persists On ACTA As First Official Meeting Concludes (IP-Watch)
European Parliament Study Draws Some Critical Conclusions on ACTA... Dordi agrees with NGOs like Knowledge Ecology International and IP Justice with regard to a certain “vagueness” in definitions and forum shopping. It was unclear from the use of the terms ‘counterfeit’ and ‘piracy’ what the new treaty would actually cover, he wrote.

30 May, 2008: Will Proposed Treaty Make Border Agents Copyright Cops? (Computerworld)
An Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) under quiet negotiation by several countries including the U.S and Canada is raising concern in some quarters after a leaked document, purportedly offering more details on the nascent agreement, was posted on the Internet. The document, titled "Discussion Paper on a Possible Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" (download PDF), was posted last week by the Wikileaks ...

30 May, 2008: Embattled ACTA Negotiations Next Week In Geneva; US Sees Signing This Year (IP-Watch)
Formal negotiations on an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) are expected to commence next week in Geneva, according to a European Commission official, even as a leaked United States trade office paper is drawing criticism of the proposed pact. The publication of a US Trade Representative’s office discussion paper on ACTA leaked last week on Wikileaks has spurred criticism of the ...

17 Apr, 2008: Internet Bill of Rights Coalition on “Search Engine” (CBC Radio)
Radio interview (.mp3) of Robin Gross and Robert Guerra discuss the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Dynamic Coalition for an Internet Bill of Rights on CBC's "Search Engine" with host Jesse Brown.

4 Mar, 2008: Business, Governments See Momentum For ACTA, But EU Snags (IP-Watch)
"Critics Raise Doubts on Narrow ACTA Process. But some ACTA critics say that is not enough, and that developing countries and civil society groups not part of the inter-governmental discussions are at a disadvantage from the outset. "These talks have all been going on between a select handful of countries that will basically decide what the parameters of ...

19 Nov, 2007: Open Standards, Access To Knowledge Discussed At IGF (IP-Watch)
"Intellectual property-related issues were a topic avoided by governments during the 2003-2005 World Summit on the Information Society, which gave way to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). But at the second IGF in Rio de Janeiro last week there were several IP-related workshops. Organisers of the dynamic coalitions on open standards, access to knowledge and the newly formed coalition ...

12 Nov, 2007: Internet Domain Name Censorship Vote Delayed (Toward Freedom)
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which makes policy governing the Internet's Domain Name System, recently held its 30th International Public Meeting in Los Angeles. ICANN has stumbled into serious controversy as it threatens to establish policies for systematic censorship of generic top-level domains ("gTLDs" such as '.com' or '.org'), and it left these issues unresolved as ...

30 Oct, 2007: Internet Governance Forum To Return To Critical Internet Resources Issue (IP-Watch)
"The upcoming second Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro will have a very broad agenda with over thirty workshops, 22 best practice forums and 10 meetings of dynamic coalitions specialising in key issues such as access, diversity, openness and security. One outstanding issue at the 12-15 November forum is the renewed debate about critical Internet resources like IP ...

29 Sep, 2007: WIPO Launches New Agenda on IP and Development (IP-Watch)
"The member governments of the World Intellectual Property Organization on Friday formally adopted a new Development Agenda, launching an enhanced development orientation across all of its activities, with details on implementation to be determined later. “This is an important day,” Argentina Ambassador Alberto Dumont told a press briefing. “Our group is very pleased with the result that was achieved.” But ...

9 May, 2007: Worldwide DMCA-style decryption rules still a possibility at WIPO (Ars Technica)
A coalition of consumer groups and corporations that includes everyone from IP Justice to AT&T has just issued a statement calling on the US WIPO delegation to oppose WIPO's proposed Broadcast Treaty in its current form. In the letter, the groups worry that the treaty's support for worldwide legal rules regulating any device that can decrypt video signals "would presumably ...

1 Mar, 2007: Web Site Owners May Get Tougher to Find (National Law Journal)
"An organization that polices the domain name system is likely to decide this year -- after several years of debate -- to adopt a new policy that would let Web site owners keep most of their contact information confidential when they register for a name. Instead, they would be allowed to list a separate go-between point of contact."