I'm forwarding this, as it could be of interest to those not on the internet governance mailing list. regards, Robert -- ====================================== Internet Governance Project Newsletter ====================================== ...current events in Internet Governance and the activities of the Internet Governance Project. http://www.internetgovernance.org Volume 2.02 April 27, 2007 ======== Contents ======== [1] ICANN's Deregulation Leads to (Surprise!) TLD Price Increases [2] DNSSEC: A Serial Blog [3] Master Key to the Internet? US Homeland Security Takes some Heat [4] Court Tells USG to Reveal More about its role in .xxx [5] Will Whois Debate Ever End? [6] Civil Society Experts Convene for Global Governance Workshop [7] IGP Research: Award Winning Papers [8] Upcoming Event: Symposium on Internet Governance and Security [9] Upcoming Event: IGF Consultation ================================================================= [1] No Price Caps + No Registry Competition = TLD Price Increases ================================================================= Of course the press was loudest this month when VeriSign, in line with its recently minted registry contract with ICANN, hiked its prices for .COM to $6.42 per year per domain. But shortly thereafter the comparably smaller registries for .INFO and .ORG followed suit, raising their prices to $6.15. To be honest, none of the changes should have been a surprise. A feature of ICANN's new registry agreements minted in 2006 was the lifting of provisions imposing price controls on the .COM, .BIZ, .INFO, and .ORG registry operators. Concern about the lifting of these controls and the potential for discriminatory or variable pricing was the focus of the majority of thousands of messages submitted in response to the request for public comments. All ccTLDs and many gTLDs (e.g. .AERO, .CAT, .COOP, .JOBS, .MOBI, .MUSEUM, .TEL, and .TRAVEL) operate without any ICANN-mandated price controls. ============================= [2] IGP Examines DNS Security ============================= During April, the IGP Blog has examined DNS Security Extensions, focusing specifically on the problem of cryptographically signing the DNS root zone to improve internet security. We've highlighted some of the hidden and not-so-hidden political implications of this technical change. And in the coming posts, we'll show how DNSSEC implementation, if handled properly, creates an opportunity to overcome some of the thorny global governance issues associated with the current root zone file management procedure. These postings -- hopefully with the aid of your comments -- will evolve into a new position paper on the politics and economics of DNSSEC to be released in May. Securing the Root: Introduction <http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/ 2007/4/2/2852013.html> Securing the Root: What is DNSSEC? What's the controversy? <http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/ 2007/4/9/2866546.html> Securing the Root: The root of the problem, creating trust anchor(s) <http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/ 2007/4/18/2890435.html> ================================================ [3] US Homeland Security Dept. Attracts Interest ================================================ While the web was abuzz over a story how DHS 'wants the master key' to a secure DNS, IGP was busy reporting the actual detail of the controversy. Signing the root is considered a critical step to deploying DNSSEC widely across the Internet. DHS's draft proposal, "Signing the Domain Name System Root Zone: Technical Specification," was quietly released last fall to a limited group of experts for review. It focused almost exclusively on a single 'Root Key Operator,' suggesting a governmental organization or contractor could assume the role. Citing the need to avoid "explicit interdependencies," a split key management approach which distributes authority among multiple parties and is a standard in high security federal systems was discounted. The DHS-funded study did, however, recognize other options, including multiple RKOs, in a small appendix. <http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/ 2007/4/15/2881860.html> ================================================================== [4] Court Orders USG to Tell More About its Role in .xxx Rejection ================================================================== ICANN finally made a decision to kill the ICM Registry's .xxx application, with the Board voting 9-5 against it in Lisbon last month. In a bad sign for the future, the vote indicated that ICANN's approach to top level domains will be to block any proposed that are politically or culturally controversial. The controversy over domain names and free expression on the Internet ignited robust discussion on civil society Internet governance lists < http://lists.cpsr.org/ lists/arc/governance/2007-04/msg00008.html>. In response to ICANN's decision, ICM registry released details of a court decision which ruled that the Departments of Commerce and State failed to justify withholding documents that reflect the U.S. government's role in meddling with ICANN's consideration of .xxx. The Court observed that "apparently in response to pressure from the U.S. government and other concerned parties - the [ICANN] Board postponed its vote on the measure at eight subsequent board meetings." It further ordered the government to turn over the documents or fully explain its failure to do so as part of official agency deliberations about the role of the U.S. government in ICANN's approval of .xxx. It discounted the government's excuses for withholding or redacting key documents, and admonished the departments that "[d]escriptions of mere opinions relating to ICANN's consideration of .XXX - absent, for example, corresponding assertions that such opinions concern DOC's role in ICANN process and contribute to an ongoing dialogue or debate regarding that role - do not enjoy deliberative process privilege." ICM Registry welcomed the Court's ruling. Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry said: "Recent events remind us that intergovernmental email exchanges can be more illuminating of agency actions than official explanations." View the Court order here: <http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/ 2007/3/30/2847139.html> =============================== [5] Will Whois Debate Cycle On? =============================== Despite the Whois Task Force issuing its conclusive final report in March, any final policy change by ICANN remains undone. The final report's recommendations to protect domain name registrants from unrestricted harvesting and mining of their contact data were a hard fought victory for public interest advocates, who built a tenuous alliance with the domain name registration industry to the dismay of the US government, and copyright and law enforcement interests. The GNSO Council will now begin consideration of the Task Force recommendations in order to create a Whois policy. Discussions were initiated during the ICANN Lisbon meetings, and will continue online and through conference calls. According to the ICANN website, the GNSO Council may make a policy recommendation to the ICANN Board following it's deliberations. Should the ICANN Board receive a recommendation from the GNSO Council, it must then consider whether to accept it. It is feared that the group will simply pound away for 4 more months on the same polarized disagreements that occupied the prior Whois Task Force for three years. One participant in an international organization described the result this way: "I found this process kind of bizarre, with a group sent out to work on the issue and coming back with a report and two conclusions, another group coming up with a set of draft policy principles which apparently are not based on the previous work done by the first group, to conclude with a decision of the originating group to set up another working group which has the objective to come up with...(ad libitum?)" You can follow the issue here: <http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois-privacy/> ========================================== [6] Civil Society and Global Public Policy ========================================== IGP's Milton Mueller attended the international meeting on "Civil Society Intervention in the Reform of Global Public Policy" in Paris April 17-19. The purpose of the meeting was to allow civil society organizations and academics from various continents, languages and issue-areas "to compare and analyze their strategies, methods and tools." The space for this discussion was provided by the Ford Foundation and the Institute for a new Reflection on Governance. The seminar used three global governance campaigns as the basis for discussions: 1) reform campaigns around International Financial Institutions (IFI); 2) promotion of the Tobin Tax, and 3) Internet governance. Conference organizer Lisa Jordan of the Ford Foundation explained that one reason for the choices was that the IFI campaigns are mature, dating back 25-30 years; the Tobin tax campaigns are middle-aged, and the Internet governance arena is a very young one. The Internet governance advocates and researchers in attendance included not only Mueller but Willie Currie of APC, Sean O'Siochru of the CRIS Campaign, Veronique Kleck of VECAM in France, and Dipankar Sinha of the University of Calcutta. As the newest and least familiar of the global governance campaigns, Internet governance as an issue benefited greatly from the exposure, attracting intense interest from the participants in other issue-networks. There is no room here for a full discussion of all the comparative lessons learned, but one message in particular about global Internet governance emerged. There was a great deal of discussion of how we assess the value of institutional venues to target, with the Internet Governance Forum in particular and multistakeholder venues in general ( e.g., the World Commission on Dams) receiving much scrutiny. But there was a consensus that these global institutions create civil society; i.e., they are spotlights that allow many different CS actors to find each other. WSIS succeeded in mobilizing civil society groups around communication-information policy issues and brought together people and issue networks that had not worked together before. The IGF is the only venue that can maintain that role now. The problem, of course, is that if IGF does not seriously affect policy or engage decision makers then its ability to attract and mobilize CS (and other players) will atrophy. Another interesting message to emerge was one of patience. International processes are slow and may conflict with the expectations created by the rapid technological and industry change in the IG area. An activist noted that time spans of 15-20 years were required. ========================================================== [7] IGP Researchers Win Awards, Shape Scientific Discourse ========================================================== IGP's ability to link Internet governance advocacy with rigorous scholarly work was visibly apparent over the past few months. Doctoral candidates Brenden Kuerbis and Christiane Page will present a paper at the 2007 International Communications Association meeting in San Francisco next month. Their recently published work , co- authored with Milton Mueller, was given the ICA law and policy division's "top three paper" award. The research examines communications rights and the emergence of transnational civil society advocacy in Internet governance during the World Summit on the Information Society. < http://ijoc.org/ojs/index.php/ijoc/article/ view/13> The evolution of Internet governance was also the topic of a recent article by IGP Partners Milton L. Mueller, John Mathiason and Hans Klein. Their article, "The Internet and Global Governance: Principles and Norms for a New Regime," was published in the April/ June issue of Global Governance. < http://www.atypon-link.com/LRP/doi/ abs/10.5555/ggov.2007.13.2.237> Emerald Group Publishing informed us that Milton Mueller's recently published paper, "IP addressing: the next frontier of internet governance debate" has been selected as a Highly Commended Winner at the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2007. < www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/14636690610688051> Partner John Mathiason also published work earlier this year with Kumarian Press. "Invisible Governance: International Secretariats in Global Politics" examines the hidden role of these influential bodies in global public policy. < http://www.kpbooks.com/details.asp?title=Invisible+Governance> Finally, IGP Partner Derrick Cogburn was elected Co-Program Chair and Vice-President Elect for the International Communication Section (ICOMM) of the International Studies Association. In this role, he along with his colleagues will be responsible for planning the vast majority of ISA's program over the next three years. Internet governance research is growing by leaps and bounds and IGP researchers are leading the way, congratulations to all! ================================================================= [8] Upcoming Event: Symposium on Internet Governance and Security ================================================================= Internet Governance and Security: Exploring the Relationship between Global and National Solutions May 17, 2007 2:00-6:00 PM Swiss Embassy, 2900 Cathedral Ave. N.W. (Metro: Red Line, Woodley) Washington DC, USA <http://internetgovernance.org/events.html#Symposium_051707 > This symposium on Internet Governance and Internet security will explore the relationships between global and national Solutions to problems of cyber crime and cyber security. The meeting will focus on the tensions and complementarities between global and national policy making for issues related to the security and privacy of commerce and communication on the Internet. The symposium will be held in Washington, DC, May 17, 2007, beginning at 2:00 pm and running until 6:00 pm. The event will be held in the facilities of the Swiss Embassy. At 6:30, the Swiss Embassy will house a reception for sponsors, organizers, speakers, and invited guests. Three academic institutions are cooperating to define the program: Syracuse University School of Information Studies; the George Mason University Law School's Critical Infrastructure Protection Program; The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne. The meeting coincides with the US module of the EPFL's global Executive Master's in e-governance, which will bring 20 students and participants in the program to Washington. Most cyber security initiatives are undertaken at the national level. But the Internet is a global infrastructure and effective policy often requires a globally coordinated effort. New global institutions such as ICANN and the Internet Governance Forum have been created to meet the need for global coordination and policy development. Older international institutions, such as the ITU and the United Nations, also wish to play a role. And powerful national governments such as the United States and China can often exert international influence over Internet policy. Many times these different sources of authority work at cross purposes or compete for influence. Often there are disagreements or uncertainties about what is the proper role of nations, international organizations, the private sector and the technical community. This symposium will explore these issues, attracting an elite audience of technical experts, policy academics, U.S. and international policy makers in government, and industry players. They will identify and discuss Internet governance issues such as the security of the domain name system (DNSSEC), spam and cybercrime, identity and identification, and private sector security regimes in sectors such as banking. If you would like to attend, please RSVP to Kathryn Allen, at kallen02@syr.edu **Agenda** 2:00 Welcome Milton Mueller, Syracuse University iSchool, Internet Governance Project, Host Matthias Finger, Swiss Federal Polytechnical Institute (EPFL) John McCarthy, Critical Infrastructure Protection Program, GMU Law School 2:10*3:30 Panel 1 - Securing the Root: The Politics and Economics of DNSSEC Moderator: Brenden Kuerbis, Syracuse University Paul Vixie, ISC Becky Burr, Wilmer Hale, Washington DC Scott Rose, NIST David Conrad, ICANN/IANA Thierry Moreau, Connotech, Canada Matt Larsen, VeriSign 3:45*4:45 Panel 2 - Taking Charge: Public Sector Plans and Private Sector Priorities John A. McCarthy, George Mason University School of Law Jim Kadtke, John Sabo, IT-ISAC Marcus Sachs, SRI International 5:00*6:00 Panel 3 - National Interest, Global Governance: Which Suits the Internet? David Johnson, New York Law School Milton Mueller, Syracuse University School of Information Studies Marc Rotenberg, EPIC Margie Milam, MarkMonitor 6:30 Reception Sponsors: Wilmer Hale and Syracuse University (Invitation only) ============================= [9] Upcoming Event: IGF Consultation ============================= A new round of consultations will take place on the 23 May 2007, in preparation for the upcoming Internet Governance Forum in Rio. The meeting will be held at the ITU Tower, Room C. It will be part of a cluster of WSIS related events which will take place in Geneva from 15-25 May, 2007. All stakeholders interested in attending are invited to register online now < http://www.itu.int/cgi-bin/htsh/edrs/ITU-SG/ edrs15/edrs.registration.form>. The purpose of these consultations is to address the agenda and the programme of the Rio de Janeiro meeting. Stakeholders are invited to send in contributions, as an input into these consultations to: igf@unog.ch or post their comments in our online discussion section < http://intgovforum.org/forum/index.php? board=13.0>. Contributions and discussion posts received by 14 May, 2007 will be reflected in a synthesis paper summarizing the input received. The paper will be made available on the IGF website < http://intgovforum.org> prior to the consultations. ========================= Subscription Information ========================= Subscribe/unsubscribe from the IGP-Announce mailing list via web interface: http://internetgovernance.org/subscribe.html =============== Privacy Policy =============== The IGP-Announce mailing list is used only to mail IGP news announcements. We do not sell, rent or share our mailing list. 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