NCUC Letter to US Congressional Committee to Express Concern about Internet Censorship from SOPA/PIPA
ICANN's Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) today sent a letter to the Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives to express concern over the harmful impact from proposed legislation in the US Congress, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). The House Judiciary Committee will likely vote on SOPA tomorrow, and if it passes there and moves to the full US House for approval, the US Congress will take the Internet a significant step backwards, ushering in a new "digital dark ages" of Internet censorship.
45 Public Interest Groups Send Letter to WIPO on IP Enforcement Activities
Forty-five civil society groups concerned about efforts to ratchet-up the enforcement of intellectual property rights beyond healthy levels sent a letter to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) this week to their express concern on WIPO's continued promotion of a "maximalist" agenda with respect to intellectual property rights. The civil society letter reminded WIPO that this approach undermine's development dimensions and subordinates fundamental rights including freedom of expression on the Internet. The public interest groups cite the lack of transparency in WIPO decisions and its lack of balancing other public interest concerns in its approach.
Landmark Ruling for Europe on Fair Balance Between Copyright & Fundamental Human Rights
The European Union's highest court issued a key legal ruling overturning a Belgian law that would have required Internet service providers to monitor all Internet traffic passing through their systems with the goal of protecting copyright holders' rights. In a closely watched case, the European Court of Justice struck down [...]
Civil Society Involvement in ICANN: Strengthening Future Civil Society Influence in ICANN Policymaking
Civil Society Involvement in ICANN: Strengthening Future Civil Society Influence in ICANN Policymaking By Robin Gross (APC) September 2011 The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was established in 1998 by the United States Department of Commerce to oversee a number of internet-related tasks. One of its core [...]
What does it mean for ICANN to act in the public interest?
ICANN should bake-in to its internal policy development process, consideration of the various interests and stakeholders that can together reach what can be called the 'public interest'. Consider principles that we agree help us to achieve what we think is the 'public interest,' like openness and promoting freedom and making sure the Internet enables education, communication, innovation, exploration ...
IP Justice Comments on ICANN Policy Proposal for Trademarks & New GTLDs
Statement in public forum regarding ICANN Board response to "scorecard" of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) on trademark protections for new generic top-level Internet domain names. The GAC is pressuring the ICANN Board to dramatically expand the rights of trademark owners after heavy lobbying by trademark industry of governmental representatives who participate at ICANN.
San Francisco Civil Liberties Groups Comment on SF Entertainment Commission Proposal to Create Surveillance State in Local Arts Establishments
IP Justice signed comments from a number of San Francisco civil liberties organizations concerned about the draconian new proposal to turn local SF arts organizations into surveillance mechanisms for law enforcement. This proposal harms civil liberties like free expression and privacy and it will harm the local arts communities who will be forced to spy on their patrons if enacted. The comments are from PrivacyActivism, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, IP Justice, Patient Privacy Rights, the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights, Chip Pitts of Stanford Law School, Beat the Chip, and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee
IP Justice Statement on ICANN’s Responsibility to Respect Human Rights
IP Justice submitted a statement today in response to the U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) regarding its relationship with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In its submission, IP Justice argued that ICANN needs a better legal framework that will obligate the [...]
Support Multi-Stakeholderism at ICANN & Sign the Petition for No Govt. Veto on Domain Names
The Internet Governance Project has published a very important petition against a governmental power-grab over of the Internet's Domain Name System. Governments are pushing ICANN for a "veto" right to prevent any top-level domain "for any reason". Sign the petition to support multi-stakeholder bottom-up consensus policy at ICANN instead.
IP Justice Comments on ICANN Plans for New Top-Level Domains: Keep the Core Neutral – ICANN Should Avoid Expanding Scope of Mission to Include Enforcing “Morality” and Fighting “Terrorism”
IP Justice submitted brief comments today to ICANN regarding its plan for introducing new Top-Level Domains (TLDs). Specifically, IP Justice raised concerns about policy proposals that threaten freedom of expression on the Internet and seek to expand ICANN's mission to include ensuring "Morality and Public Order" (MAPO) and preventing "terrorism" through personal background checks. IP Justice believes both of these ICANN proposals are mis-guided and will harm the healthy development of the Internet and the global public interest.
IP Justice Comments on ICANN Accountability & Transparency Concerns: Lack of Accountability to Non-Commercial Users Remains Problematic for ICANN’s Promise to Protect the Public Interest
IP Justice is deeply concerned that ICANN is insufficiently accountable to relevant non-commercial interests. Certain interests, such as business interests (in particular the trademark and domain name industries) are over-represented at ICANN both in structure and in practice. On the other hand, non-commercial interests and individual Internet users are not given the appropriate representation, although some improvements have been made in recent years. There is a real worry that ICANN is an "industry organization" and works predominantly for trademark interests and the domain name industry. Too often non-commercial concerns are ignored by ICANN; without any real "muscle" behind non-commercial interests, ICANN has little incentive to protect those interests in its policy development process...
Updated Consolidated Text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
The full consolidated text of the ACTA agreement, dated July 1st 2010 from the Luzern round of negotiations, including the name of the negotiating parties along with their positions. Sourced from the civil liberties committee (LIBE) of the European Parliament.