ICANN : guilty as charged

Discusses the role of ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), a private not-for-profit California corporation created to manage the Internet domain name system and take the regulatory action that the US Department of Commerce (DoC) was unable or unwilling to handle directly. Considers ICANN's legal status and policy-making activities. Explores the criticisms that have been levelled at ICANN, relating to: (1) the DoC's relationship with ICANN; (2) the violation of competition laws; and (3) the effect of ICANN's actions in Europe

Towards a Humanistic Conception of Cyberspace. A Twofold Challenge for Netizens Mobilizing for a Democratic Internet Governance

Our paper critically addresses the involvement and the role of civil society entities in new participatory forms of governance, using the Internet governance (IG) debate as a case study. The Internet is first and foremost a global public space potentially available to everyone for the pursuit of the most heterogeneous interests. As this global space becomes crucial in everyday life and consequences of interests pursuit within it capillary innerve the offline dimension, new forms of governance are required to ensure that all stakeholders are represented and actively involved in the management and development of what can be conceptualized as a common pool resource (CPR). The commons of the Internet space and its service as a CPR necessitate the involvement of various competencies that are dispersed in intelligence networks to which private sector and civil society necessary belong. In particular, we examine the meaning and the potential for the inclusion of civil society entities in this debate in relation to the achievement of a universal (and not only global) Internet and the consolidation of a humanized conception of IG. To this end, we propose an analytical division of IG space in four sub-sectors (social commons; information and service commons; price commons; infrastructure commons) and we argue that civil society groups participation should be contextualized and actions modulated following this dissection of competence and eligibility spheres. Furthermore, the effort to achieve a democratic internet governance translates into a double challenge for civil society groups: on the one hand, occasions of direct influence must be fully exploited modulating actions in a way that overcomes the inherent heterogeneity characterizing public interests entities; on the other, a humanized vision has to be built up and consolidated in the IG field in order to provide a set of benchmarks dynamically interacting with market and traditional policy making logics. Finally, we will also explore the effect that the construction and the consolidation of a humanized perspective on IG will have in the translation of this domain from a mostly technical matter into a seed in an emerging field of contention built around information and communication issues.internet governance, common pool resource, civil society political participation, humanized conception of internet governance

Marching Closer: The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Transition

As we draw closer to the time when the IANA stewardship functions transition away from US oversight to global stakeholders, LSE alumna and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) NextGen participant Sana Ali talks to Konstantinos Komaitis, Senior Policy Adviser at the Internet Society (ISOC), about the implications of the transition for both ICANN and the internet community as a whole

Don't thing but look: the practice of the UDRP manifest that it is procedurally unfair

Over the past decade, electronic commerce has expanded and has provided new ways of conducting businesses in a brand new environment. Lately u-commerce seems to be pioneering the field of electronic transactions. Where 'u' stands for ubiquitous, unison, unique and universal, u-commerce offers the opportunity to users to conduct business everywhere and at any given moment in time. The simplicity of u-commerce transactions makes the issue of domain names more relevant than ever before. This chapter examines the procedural unfairness of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) in an effort to demonstrate that the 'regulatory' framework surrounding domain names does not respect their technological necessity

Pandora's box is finally opened : the uniform domain name dispute resolution process and arbitration

This article aims to discuss the issue of whether the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) endorsed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is an arbitral process, according to the principles of the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. For this purpose this article will first establish the true meaning of arbitration, moving on to illustrate how it has been incorporated with the introduction of the Internet and specifically the interaction between Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms. Furthermore, this article will demonstrate how ICANN has used arbitration and ADR methods to deal with the conflict between trademarks and domain names; for this purpose, a short history of the UDRP will be mentioned and the Policy will be later compared to conventional arbitration in order to prove that UDRP is not an arbitral process, at least according to the way arbitration is conceived. Finally, this paper will illustrate that ICANN's Policy has created a whole new process for deciding domain name disputes that has a rather ambiguous natur

Internet governance : Why Plato is still relevant

In December 2008, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has successfully completed its third installment on issues pertaining to Internet governance. The IGF promotes a multi-stakeholder environment, where protagonists engage in an extensive debate to discuss how the Internet should look in the future; with these discussions in place issues of cultural diversity and cultural relativism become more relevant than ever before. However, culture is normally followed by zeal; zeal to preserve it and to adhere to its historical significance. This is like a Damocles sword, since tradition and its relative - custom - can potentially prohibit progress and pose threats to social structures; more precisely, in international environments, like the Internet, certain traditions can be mistakenly considered as more valuable and exhibited thereon as more 'exclusive' than others. This being the case, it is undeniable that custom not only will play a significant role in the governance of the Internet, but this role will, in turn, be able to determine the dynamics within its structure. This paper discusses the influential role of custom and its effects within the society of Internet Governance; it then proceeds to discuss an interpretation of justice, which demonstrates the way custom might be enforced and imposed upon various subjects. Finally, this paper shows that these conflicting customs should not necessarily annihilate multiparticipatory governance structures, rather assist in their progress

Domain names as second class citizens in a mark-dominated world

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