[Ict4devwg] [IGP Announce] Internet Governance Project Headlines

[Vern Weitzel]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[IGP Announce] Internet Governance Project Headlines
Date: 	Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:00:05 -0400
From: 	Internet Governance Project <info at internetgovernance.org>
Reply-To: 	Internet Governance Project <info at internetgovernance.org>
To: 	vern <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au>



*June 9, 2009*

*Internet Governance Project Calls For U.S.-Led International Agreement
On ICANN*

Citing U.S. President Barack Obama’s 2008 statement that the “global
challenges we face demand global institutions that work,” a group of
academic experts called on the United States to take decisive action on
the future of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN). The group, Internet Governance Project
<http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Finternetgovernance.org&esheet=5983449&lan=en_US&anchor=Internet+Governance+Project&index=1> 

(IGP), urged the U.S. Commerce Department in its comments
<http://internetgovernance.org/pdf/IGP-June09NTIAcomment.pdf> to let the
so-called Joint Project Agreement with ICANN expire and engage with
other governments to create stronger and more internationalized legal
arrangements that will keep the organization accountable to Internet users.

“It’s time to fish or cut bait on the ‘transition’ of the Internet’s
naming and addressing system,” said Dr. Milton Mueller
<http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fischool.syr.edu%2Ffacstaff%2Fmember.aspx%3Fid%3D118&esheet=5983449&lan=en_US&anchor=Milton+Mueller&index=2>, 

professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies
<http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fischool.syr.edu&esheet=5983449&lan=en_US&anchor=Syracuse+University+School+of+Information+Studies&index=3> 

and chair of IGP’s Scientific Committee. “After 11 years, either ICANN
is ready to be independent or it is not. If it still has problems, and
it does, let’s take decisive action to fix them.”

While noting ICANN’s shortcomings, the IGP comment focused its criticism
on the Commerce Department’s Joint Project Agreement (JPA) with ICANN.
The JPA is a temporary form of supervision that allows the Commerce
Department to negotiate goals and priorities for ICANN on a short time
frame. The Internet Governance Project contends that the “JPA process is
inherently broken” and “contributes to ICANN’s failings… It does nothing
but invite the stakeholders in one privileged country to complain to
their own government about policy outcomes they don’t like.”

Instead of continuing an endless series of renewals and revisions of the
JPA, IGP argues that the “U.S. government needs to let the JPA expire
and immediately initiate an international agreement that completes the
transition of ICANN to a stable, accountable form of global governance.”
That agreement should:

     * Affirm and formalize the nongovernmental status of ICANN
     * Formally recognize the sovereignty of other national governments
       over their top level domains
     * Prohibit ICANN from interfering with freedom of expression
     * Ensure the consistency of ICANN’s regulations with antitrust law
       and nondiscriminatory trade principles
     * Select an appropriate body of national corporate law under which
       ICANN should operate
     * Dissolve ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee

By taking the lead in the negotiation of an international agreement, IGP
claims, “the United States can gain buy-in from other governments for
its own model of Internet governance and ensure that the transition does
not harm any of its own legitimate interests. But to succeed in
completing the transition and to avoid fragmenting the Internet, the
U.S. will have to win the acceptance of a critical mass of other
countries and peoples.”

The Internet Governance Project is an alliance of academics that puts
expertise into practical action in the fields of global governance and
Internet policy. IGP’s Scientific Committee includes recognized experts
in global governance and Internet policy from Syracuse University’s
School of Information Studies and Maxwell School of Citizenship and
Public Affairs, Technology University of Delft, Netherlands, the London
School of Economics, and American University.

Learn more at http://blog.internetgovernance.org
<http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.internetgovernance.org&esheet=5983449&lan=en_US&anchor=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.internetgovernance.org&index=4>. 



-- 
Vern Weitzel (Mr.) BSc, BA, MA, M Env Man & Dev
<vern at coombs.anu.edu.au> <vern.weitzel at gmail.com> <vernweitzel at mac.com>

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