Begin forwarded message:
From: jays@panix.com (Jay Sulzberger) Date: July 9, 2009 8:47:38 AM PDT (CA) To: oia@lists.bway.net Subject: [OIA] Monday 13 July 2009 ICANN Meeting on Proposed Englobulation of Domain Names
On Monday 13 July 2009 ICANN will meet in the Hudson Theatre of the Millennium Hotel at 145 West 45th Street on the Island of the Manahattoes.
The Hudson Theatre is a serious theatre:
http://www.millenniumhotels.com/millenniumnewyork/other/index.html
and ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, have use of this theatre all day Monday 13 July 2009.
ICANN has called this meeting in order to be able to claim that ICANN has consulted with the public on a proposed New World Order of Domain Names. Under the new order, if you or I or PETA or the Green Party, or the Ranters and Gun Owners Association, or NYLUG-SOCIAL, were to apply for a domain name, first a new arm of ICANN, an arm chartered to act in the interests of some hundred large world wide corporations, would have to vet your proposed new domain name. If this new agency of ICANN disapproves your name, then you would have to, right off the bat, pay $20,000 in American money, to hire a lawyer to fight ICANN. ICANN would run a new trans-national para-legal court in which the case would be heard. The court would formally be a creature of the hundred large companies.
Of course, the Englobulators have made sure that no public notice of this event has been made. Have you seen notice on Slashdot? In the New York Times? No. But well paid lobbyists and spokesmodels for the Englobulators have been hired to attend this meeting. They will come in force, and they will be armed with slides, and sheaves of paper, on which will be written their best arguments for you giving up your right to the domain name of your choice.
What can we do to stop this extraordinary attempt to subvert traditional trademark law? We can show up at the Hudson Theatre on Monday and ask why these hundred companies are formally created a special class within the New World Order of Domain Names.
Please register to attend this supposedly public ICANN meeting. The registration deadline is tomorrow 10 July 2009:
http://www.registration123.com/ICANN/GTLD/
Please read the Report of the Englobulators on a New World Order of Domain Names, called the IRT Final Report on Trademark Protection:
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-4-29may09-en.htm
(See pages 15 and 16 in the pdf of the report for a presentation of the special status to be accorded the Hundred Corporations. The Hundred Corporations are those named in the "Globally Protected Marks List".)
Here is further information:
ICANN Announcement on Events: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-12jun09-en.htm
Public Comment on Final IRT Report: http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-final-report/
Public Comment on Draft IRT Report: http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-draft-report/
Here are three collocations of arguments against the New Domain Name System:
IP Justice Comments: http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-final-report/msg00210.html
EFF Australia Comments: http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-final-report/msg00179.html
Comments from Kathy Kleiman: http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-draft-report/msg00068.html
Below my signature are two notices about this meeting, one by Seth Johnson, and one by Kathy Kleiman, of the Noncommercial Users Constituency:
Kathy alerted Seth and me to this meeting. Kathy is point in the fight against this large attempt on the traditional system of trademark and on our ancient right of free naming on the Net. Please write to Kathy Kleiman if you would like to meet with her and other partisans on Sunday 12 July 2009 in New York City, or early on Monday 13 July 2009:
kathy@kathykleiman.com
We hope you will come to the Hudson Theatre on Monday 13 July 2009 and help defeat the Englobulators.
Jay Sulzberger <secretary@lxny.org> Corresponding Secretary LXNY LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization. http://www.lxny.org
<blockquote what="notice by Seth Johnson" edits="one typo repaired">
Date: Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:07:51 -0400 From: Seth Johnson <seth.johnson@RealMeasures.dyndns.org> Reply-To: seth.johnson@RealMeasures.dyndns.org Organization: Real Measures To: discuss@freeculture.org, Kathy@KathyKleiman.com Subject: NY FC Fighters Needed -- Stand Against Trademark Abuse at ICANN
Hi folks, this is you. We *need to get to this hearing, the New York phase of a rapid series of meetings around the world by ICANN. Please see the blurb below. You MUST REGISTER by TOMORROW. It's at the Millennium Hotel this Monday.
(Others in other cities, get ready)
This is the rollout for the new Global Top Level Domains. It's the supposed public input phase. But it's also about putting in place a massive, global change in trademark policy.
Get this -- the group that put this plan together (the "Implementation Recommendation Team" or IRT) has already closed shop before initiating these meetings -- so what's the point?
Domain names don't match up with trademark law -- DNS is about giving symbols one universal address. Language is not. You don't trademark "Apple" -- you reserve the use of that trademark to market a particular kind of goods or service. Thus we have Apple Computers and The Beatles' Apple music company. Or Sun Oil in Canada, a completely separate company from Sun Oil in America -- and certainly not the same as the Sun computing company. There's also fair use -- and of course free speech.
The MPAA and International Trademark have had a hand in ICANN from its inception, when they required the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy. Now, along with rolling out new global Top Level Domains, trademark owners are ramming through a new process that goes well beyond that. They are pulling out the stops to get ICANN to implement what will in practical terms amount to a huge revision in the nature of trademark, backed by strong practical action. Along with a new "Uniform Rapid Suspension System" to shut down sites quickly, they are establishing ICANN as playing the role of policing trademarks -- which by law is the trademark holders' responsibility.
The thing to remember is that while domain names and trademarks might be hard to get a hold of politically, this sets a huge precedent that will change trademark beyond that area. So we call them on their process.
(Among other things, this will mean no more Yes Men. :-) )
Kathy Kleiman of the ICANN "Noncommercial Users Constituency" will be able to brief you more fully. She can also explain what went down in the previous discussions, where they've essentially ignored all the substantive points she presented. It's up to us to come in in numbers and say we got their number.
See below blurb from Kathy.
Seth
</blockquote>
<blockquote what="notice by Kathy Kleiman" edits="some re-formatting">
ICANN Public Consultation: Should New Top Level Domains Include Broad New Trademark Protections?
On Mon, July 13, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will hold a public consultation at the Hudson Theatre, Millennium Hotel, 145 West 44th Street, to discuss the "rules of the road" for new generic top level domains (gTLDs), future competitors to .COM, .ORG and .NET.
A group of trademark attorneys, representing large brand owners, in May wrote a report calling on ICANN to create broad new trademark protections before opening up new gTLDs.
A. IP Clearinghouse: a massive database of registered and unregistered trademark rights created by ICANN (IRT Report, pp. 12-16
B. Globally Protected Marks List: a list of global marks created and maintained by ICANN (IRT Report, pp. 16- 22)
C. Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS): A ultra-fast takedown service with little notice or time to respond by domain name registrants (IRT, pp. 25-37)
These proposals have been criticized as outside the mission and scope of ICANN, a technical body, and outside the protections and limits of trademark law. ICANN's Noncommercial Users Constituency writes "We fear the impact of the IRT Proposals on free speech and fair use online. Trademark owners don't own strings of letters, they have a trademark for specific goods and services. Basic words like APPLE, TIDE, SUN and TIME belong to all of us. Many important domain names will be lost, or worse, blocked before they can be registered."
Approval of the IRT Report is being rushed through ICANN with minimal opportunity to comment. It is vital that ICANN hear comment as soon as possible, and Monday is an opportunity to speak.
ICANN's Noncommercial Users Constituency will be hosting a breakfast at the Millennium Hotel on Monday morning. Please contact NCUC Co-Founder Kathy Kleiman,
kathy@kathykleiman.com
for more details.
Registration to speak on 7/13 at this link (deadline 7/10):
http://www.registration123.com/ICANN/GTLD/
IRT Report: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-4-29may09-en.htm
IP Justice Comments: http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-final-report/msg00210.html
EFF Australia Comments: http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-final-report/msg00179.html
Noncommercial Users Constituency Website with comments: http://icann-ncuc.ning.com/
</blockquote> _______________________________________________ Open Infrastructure Alliance http://lists.bway.net/listinfo/oia