Digital Rights + Internet Governance + Innovation Policy

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So far Robin Gross has created 346 blog entries.

NCUC Statement on “Domain Name Tasting” ICANN Policy Issue

"The Final Outcomes Report of the ad hoc group on domain name tasting suggests a growing trend of registrants exploiting ICANN’s Add Grace Period (the “AGP”) to receive a full refund on the cost of registration by canceling their domain name registrations within five days. The AGP may have been adopted upon the assumption that all commercial uses of a domain name would require registration for a period longer than five days. Certain registrants, however, have discovered that they can profit from repeated use of extremely short-term registrations through the use of pay-per-click advertising or otherwise. A coordinated response by ICANN may be appropriate to close this loophole. This response, however, should not be disproportionate to the problem nor stem from any misconception of the issue...."

Granny Hackers Make History: First Computer Programmers Inspire Documentary

Congratulations are in order to cyberlaw pioneer Kathy Kleiman for her work to produce a documentary film on the first computer programmers - women working for the US military during World War II. ABCNews published an article on the film documentary today with a photo of some of these amazing women. ...

IP Justice Report on 2007 Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

Links to Audio, Video, and Photos of IGF-Rio. Where 2007 IGF Excelled: High Quality of Independently Organized Workshops, World-Class Technical Capabilities, Offline Interactions & Networking Opportunities; But: Human Rights & Controversy Avoided, Glaring Lack of Gender Balance & Youth Voices, Last' Year's Speakers ...

Robin Gross’ Remarks at IGF 2007 on Internet Bill of Rights

Today I’d like to address a few issues that are specifically relevant to the positive development of the Internet and a healthy information society. 1. Freedom of Expression Rights. 2. Access to Knowledge Rights. 3. Communication Rights. 4. Privacy Rights and Data Protection. 5. Anonymity. 6. Excessive and unbalanced intellectual property rights. 7. Open Technical Standards. 8. Democratic Values. I cannot emphasize enough that the enforcement of our existing legal rights is the first and most important step we can take to ensure human rights are protected in an information society of the future.....

IP Justice at Internet Governance Forum 2007 in Rio de Janeiro

IP Justice is proud to be involved with a number of different substantive discussions scheduled for the 2007 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. The IGF is a United Nations conference bringing together various stakeholders such as government, civil society, and business to discuss issues related to Internet governance. IP Justice is either an organizer, speaker, or co-sponsor of the following IGF-Rio sessions, which will be held at the Windsor Barra Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil during the 2007 Internet Governance Forum (11-15 November 2007)....

Digital Education Workshop at the 2007 IGF-Rio

13 Nov 2007 at IGF-Rio: "The Digital Education and Information Policy Initiative: Towards the Development of Effective Exceptions to and Limitations on Copyright in the Realm of Digital Education"

IP Justice Statement on “GNSO Improvements” at ICANN

ICANN’s Board Governance Committee Report (BGC), in attempting to achieve the laudable result of greater inclusiveness, effectiveness, and efficiency conceives a near total restructuring of the GNSO and its processes. It proceeds from an assumption that any voting inherently inhibits the process and proceeds to find the most dramatic route to eliminate any vote. While many of the BGC Report’s recommendations would certainly improve the effectiveness of the GNSO, the report does not adequately consider the values inherent in the vote of the GNSO Council and the dangers of forcing consensus in all cases....

Explanation of NCUC’s Votes on WhoIs at LA ICANN Meeting – “Halloween Vote” on WhoIs

NCUC strongly supported Motion #3 because it provided a mechanism to spur uncompromising parties to the negotiating table on Whois in good faith. Without a mechanism to bring to the negotiating table parties who already have what they want, there is no incentive to voluntarily agree to any changes to the status quo with whois. NCUC continues to believe that “sun-setting” the non-consensus policy of Whois is the best course of action for the ICANN Board and the GNSO. There is no legitimate rationale for retaining policies that lack the broad support of the ICANN community, such as Whois. Whois never held a consensus position within the GNSO and it is a tragic mistake to continue with such a non-consensus policy, particularly when ICANN has been warned by national and regional data protection commissioners that Whois violates a number of national laws and international agreements. Reform of Whois is badly and immediately needed to protect the privacy rights of Internet users, bring ICANN into compliance with international law, and remove the legal risk on Registrars and Registries for violations of law imposed by ICANN contracts....

A2K@IGF Dynamic Coalition Session at IGF-Rio 2007

14 Nov. (16:30 - 18:00) - The public is welcome to attend the meeting of the Access to Knowledge and Freedom of Expression (A2K@IGF) Dynamic Coalition at the 2007 Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The A2K@IGF Dynamic Coalition session will include a series of presentations on the impact on access to knowledge and freedom of expression from unbalanced intellectual property rights in a digital environment.

EPIC & NGO Letter to ICANN Board on Need for Whois Reform

"The purpose of this letter is to express our support for changes to WHOIS services that would protect the privacy of individuals, specifically the removal of registrants' contact information from the publicly accessible WHOIS database. It is also to propose a sensible resolution to the long-running discussion over WHOIS that would establish a bit of "policy stability" and allow the various constituencies to move on to other work. Both the WHOIS Task Force and the WHOIS Working Group agree that new mechanisms must be adopted to address an individual's right to privacy and the protection of his/her data. Current ICANN WHOIS policy conflicts with national privacy laws, including the EU Data Protection Directive, which requires the establishment of a legal framework to ensure that when personal information is collected, it is used only for its intended purpose. As personal information in the directory is used for other purposes and ICANN's policy keeps the information public and anonymously accessible, the database could be found illegal according to many national privacy and data protection laws including the European Data Protection Directive, European data protection laws and legislation in Canada and Australia...."

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