For those interested in news on WSIS conference in Geneva,
there are stories at the end that relate to domain names.
For more recent WSIS news on domain issues, see the auDA
site <http://auda.org.au/about/news> on Monday afternoon.

David

Public Participation in ICANN: Farce, or Force?
Berkman Executive Director John Palfrey, along with
research assistants Clifford Chen, Sam Hwang and Noah
Eisenkraft, has written a report which considers ICANN's
success in creating an open, democratic decision-making
system using public forums for the Internet user community.
Berkman Senior Fellow Andrew McLaughlin responds to this in
his paper (to be published within hours), "The Virtues of
Deliberative Policymaking: A Response to 'Public
Participation in ICANN.'" The papers, linked from this
single page, are an example of the Berkman Center's
continued dedication to debate - even within its own ranks.

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/home?wid=10&func=viewSubmission&sid=154

Some domain name disputes are best left to the courts
Nominet, the registry for all domain names ending .uk,
offers a fast, cost-efficient dispute resolution service.
But some disputes are better left to the courts, a point
made by a Nominet expert last month in refusing to decide a
case that he deemed too complex.

http://www.out-law.com/php/page.php?page_id=somedomainnamedis1070988230

VeriSign still needs ICANN
In response to the Perspective column written by Sonia
Arrison "Why it's time to rein in ICANN": Sonia Arrison has
missed a very important point in the VeriSign/ICANN
dispute. Consumers choose to use America Online, Google or
MSN. If I do not like the service, I can simply use a
different search engine or sign up with a new Internet
service provider. VeriSign, however, is altering domain
name lookups at the root level. There is no way to opt out
of its service.
 http://rss.com.com/2009-1081_3-5113972.html

.ph - Domain name rules out by yearend
More order in the administration of domain names in the
Philippines may be expected as the advisory board completes
the oversight guidelines by the yearend.
 http://itmatters.com.ph/news/news_12082003e.html

Journalist, a Dangerous Job in Brazil
About 20 million Brazilians have access to the Internet.
Brazil publishes more daily newspapers than Mexico,
Germany, or Russia. It also has the fourth largest TV
network in the world. Journalists from Brazil are protected
from censorship by the Constitution. Still being a
journalist in Brazil is a hazardous profession.
...
The convergence of technology, software and service price
drops and Internet growth creates a hot bed for domain name
registration. Brazilians registered more than 445 million
domain names in 2001 and the number increases by almost
five percent monthly.
 http://www.brazzil.com/p136apr03.htm

ICANN Request for Comments: Procedure for use by ICANN in
considering requests for consent and related contractual
amendments to allow changes in the architecture or
operation of a gTLD registry.
As part of the GNSO's Policy Development Process, a public
comment period is mandatory.
 http://gnso.icann.org/comments-request/
 
Fun with example.com
Yesterday I was complaining to a friend about the
difficulty in making up domain names to use as examples in
documentation, since anything reasonable you can think of
is guaranteed to exist, probably held by some random
low-rent commercial outfit. This prompted him to type the
ubiquitous example.com address into his Web browser for
gaiety's sake, and thus, to our surprise, did we discover
RFC 2606. Drafted in 1999, it forbids anyone except our
friends at IANA from owning the example.com domain, making
it safe for use in documentation. (The same goes for
example.org and example.net.)
 http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/4051

Bell prankster steps forward
Thanks to a clever piece of technical tomfoolery and a
mental lapse at Bell Canada, geek circles were convinced on
Thursday that Bell's Internet servers had been hacked.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031205.gtbell1205/BNStory/Technology/

Aplus.Net Offers Anonymous Domain Registration Service
Aplus.Net, a leading Internet presence provider to small
and medium-sized businesses, announced the immediate
availability of anonymous domain name registration.
Aplus.Net created this new service to offer customers
privacy protection in the domain registration process.

http://www.webhostdir.com/news/articles/showarticle.asp?id=1750

WSIS Advanced Copy of the Draft Declaration of Principles
and Advanced Copy of the Draft Plan of Action

http://www.itu.int/wsis/documents/doc_multi-en-1147|1148.asp

ICC Seeks U.N. Takeover While Excluding ICANN, U.S.
Government from Meeting
An organization which purports to be "the voice of world
business" is proposing a de facto U.N. takeover of ICANN.
The proposal by a senior official of the International
Chamber of Commerce (ICC) would place ICANN under the U.N.
umbrella and give a strong role to U.N. agencies and to
various national governments, including those that suppress
free speech and free enterprise. In a move of breathtaking
arrogance, the ICC refused to even invite ICANN or U.S.
government representatives to the meeting at which they are
presenting their proposal.
 http://www.circleid.com/article/394_0_1_0_C

Yahoo's New Domain Keys: Will it Be Effective?
To paraphrase an old Klingon proverb, there can be no spam
solution, so long as e-mail is free. Yahoo has unveiled
plans to launch its Domain Keys software as an open-source
toolkit in 2004. The intent is to allow developers of major
e-mail systems to integrate Yahoo's public/private key
authentication system into their own software and thus
create momentum for a standard whose raison d'etre is
identify verification. This is a commendable effort, but a
closer look reveals that it will not only not stop the spam
problem, it may have almost no effect at all.
 http://www.circleid.com/article/391_0_1_0_C

Harrods Limited v. Sean Kwon
Complainant was Harrods (UK); the disputed domain name was
iharrods.com. See below for the WIPO decision.

http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2003/d2003-0722.html

Nations Chafe at U.S. Influence Over Internet (reg may be
req'd)
Paul Twomey, the president of the Internet's semi-official
governing body, Icann, learned Friday night what it feels
like to be an outsider.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/08/technology/08divide.html

U.N. Sets Aside Debate Over Control of Internet
United Nations member states this weekend headed off a
showdown over who should control the Internet, agreeing to
study the issue and reopen it in 2005.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47327-2003Dec8.html

UN leaders aim for cyberspace
Global leaders gathered in Geneva in advance of the first
ever United Nations summit meeting on the Internet could
agree only on compromises on Tuesday, illustrating the deep
divisions around the world on issues such as freedom of
expression, how to fund communications for the world's poor
and the role governments should play in cyberspace.
 http://www.iht.com/articles/120865.html

Nations at WSIS Better Off with an ICANN-Like Structure
There is much talk currently about the WSIS meeting taking
place in Geneva this week which means some needed attention
is being paid to Internet governance. While some may view
the term "Internet governance" as an oxymoron and my
natural reaction is something along the lines of "I hope
that they continue to view regulation as too complicated so
that we Internet-folks can just keep doing what we are
doing" I confess to knowing deep down that we would all be
better off with a simple, effective policy framework than
with the current anarchic state.
 http://www.circleid.com/article/392_0_1_0_C

U.N. control of Web rejected
The United States, backed by the European Union, Japan and
Canada, has turned back a bid by developing nations to
place the Internet under the control of the United Nations
or its member governments.
 http://www.washtimes.com/world/20031208-125717-6682r.htm

U.N. Weighs Internet Ground Rules
Leading up to the World Summit on the Information Society,
negotiators from 192 countries wrangle over tough issues
like who will pay to put poor countries online and whether
the United Nations should have a say in Internet
governance.
 http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,61516,00.html
 http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=5485

WSIS Discovers WWW And Wants In
In 1998, the International Telecommunication Union met in
Minneapolis and decided there should be a World Summit on
the Information Society under the administration of the
United Nations. Just five years later, that summit is a
reality, and the WSIS will be held in Geneva this week. The
next summit will be in 2005, in Tunisia.

http://www.forbes.com/home/2003/12/08/cx_da_1208topnews.html

Rifts loom at UN net summit
A UN summit aimed at expanding global access to information
technology is set to open with rifts between industrialised
and developing countries threatening to overshadow the
gathering's main objectives.

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,8121805%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001811677_tech20.html

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20031209-1336-untechsummit.html

Big Thai presence at 'digital divide' meet
ICT Minister Surapong Suebwonglee is leading a Thai
delegation of more than 55 people to the World Summit on
Information Society (WSIS) now taking place in Geneva.
 http://www.bangkokpost.com/Database/10Dec2003_data03.html

Who Should Master the Domains?
As the WSIS opens, the international community finds itself
drawn into the debate over whether the Internet's core
infrastructure, the domains, should remain managed by
industry or be taken over by governments, via the United
Nations.
 http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=21459

Pirate radio station reports on UN summit
An international media freedom group, barred from a UN
summit on the information society, set up a "pirate radio"
service today to tell delegates what was happening at the
gathering.

http://www.sabcnews.com/sci_tech/internet/0,2172,70390,00.html

Coalition On Press Freedom Calls for Information Summit to
Abandon Tunisia
A global coalition of free press organisations has called
on the World Summit on the Information Society to move its
2005 meeting from Tunisia because the country does not
respect free speech and press freedom.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200312090692.html

Action Plan to Spread ICTs
The draft Plan of Action to be presented to heads of state
at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS),
which begins here tomorrow, sets targets for nations in
order to promote the spread and use of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs).
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200312090925.html


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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Sources include Quicklinks (www.qlinks.net) and BNA
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