Digital Rights + Internet Governance + Innovation Policy

Power-Grab: ICANN to Become Internet’s “Word Police” – New gTLD Policy to Bypass National Sovereignty & Free Speech

"... Unless reformed, this ICANN policy will prevent anyone in the world from being able to use controversial words like "abortion" or "gay" in a new gTLD if a single country objects to their use. The proposal would further prevent the use of numerous ordinary words like "herb" and "john" in a string since they can have an illegal connotation in certain contexts. In addition to any country in the world being able to stop a new gTLD string, ICANN staff would also be able to prevent any idea that it deemed too controversial to exist in the new domain space. The 13 Feb. proposal (Term of Reference 2(x)) gives ICANN staff the important job of making preliminary determinations as to whether a string is inappropriate and who the "legitimate sponsor" of a domain name (such as .god) should be. "The 13 Feb proposal would essentially make ICANN the arbiter of public policy and morality in the new gTLD space, a frightening prospect for anyone who cares about democracy and free expression," said Robin Gross, Executive Director of IP Justice, an NCUC member organization. "The proposal would give ICANN enormous power to regulate the use of language on the Internet and lead to massive censorship of controversial ideas." ...

NCUC Proposal to Reform Draft Policy on Introduction of New gTLDs

"Current proposal is unworkable due to competing standards of morality and competing public policy objectives. Current proposal usurps national sovereignty. ICANN is not a legislative body to be determining "appropriate" public policy objectives and global standards of morality. National legislatures determine what is lawful in their own jurisdictions. Current proposal places enormous burden and liability on ICANN for its decisions as to what is controversial and who is the worthy applicant for a particular string. ICANN will have to remain content-neutral to avoid legal liability. Freedom of expression can be better protected with NCUC's proposal since the restrictions are more narrowly tailored to meet national law...."

NCUC Comments on GNSO WhoIs Task Force Preliminary Report

The Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) believes that ICANN policies governing the publication of Whois data must be reformed, and quickly. The Operational Point of Contact Proposal ("OPoC Proposal") presented in this Whois Task Force Report is not perfect, but it is the only way to bring some consensus and closure to a problem that has festered for too long. ....

NCUC’s Comments on New gTLD Draft Final Report: Report Deeply Flawed, Reform Needed

NCUC continues to strongly object to the principles and recommendations in the GNSO New TLD Committee’s Draft Final Report on the Introduction of New Generic Top-Level Domains (14 Nov. 2006). In particular, the proposed selection criteria for strings and dispute resolution processes over new gTLDs remain deeply problematic. The draft recommendations must be substantially reformed in order to promote competition and innovation and protect freedom of expression and non-commercial uses in the new gTLD space. The GNSO Committee’s draft proposal would have ICANN engage in massive and unprecedented censorship over the use words and ideas in cyberspace. The draft recommendations propose that ICANN mediate between competing standards of religion and morality to evaluate who is entitled to what words or ideas and how they may be used in new gTLDs. They essentially propose that ICANN be deputized the “word police” for the Internet.

NCUC Summary: Comments to ICANN from Commissioners & Organizations on WHOIS & Privacy

BACKGROUNDER BY NONCOMMERCIAL USERS CONSTITUENCY International Data Protection Laws: Comments to ICANN from Commissioners and Organizations Regarding WHOIS and the Protection of Privacy (Original .PDF) The Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) feels that ICANN and the WHOIS TF must pay close attention to the authoritative formal written comments made by Data Protection Commissioners and their organizations. [...]

NCUC Contribution to IGF on ICANN Whois Privacy Issue

Contribution Memorandum: Privacy Implications of WHOIS Database Policy Submitted to the Secretariat of the Internet Governance Forum by the ICANN Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) For IGF Greece 2006, Athens, 30 October – 2 November, 2006 The Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) is the part of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that represents [...]

NCUC Statement on ICANN’s Introduction of New gTLDs

NONCOMMERCIAL CONSTITUENCY COMMENTS SUBMITTED TO THE GNSO IN RESPONSE TO THE CALL FOR COMMENTS ON THE TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR NEW gTLDs January 31, 2006 The Noncommercial Users Constituency has duly considered the questions and issues raised by the GNSO in this proceeding, and we respectfully submit our comments below. However, before addressing the specific [...]

IP Justice Signs NGO Letter to ICANN on WHOIS Privacy Violations

WHOIS Letter to ICANN 28 October 2003 Mr. Paul Twomey President and Chief Executive Officer Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers 4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330 Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6601 United States of America Dear Mr. Twomey, We write to you, on behalf of many consumer and civil liberties organizations from around the [...]

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