<p>Intellectual Property Watch</p>
<h2>28 January 2008</h2>
<h3>Internet Governance: ICANN, Security And Nation States</h3>
<p align="justify">By Monika Ermert for <i>Intellectual Property Watch</i><br>The
future of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) will remain an important topic in Internet governance in 2008,
the tenth anniversary of the private global coordination body for
Internet addresses and domain names.</p>
<p align="justify">Yet Internet governance experts also expect security
in its different facets to be on the rise in Internet governance
debates and point to the further growing interest of nation states in
exercising their sovereign governance rights in cyberspace. And it is
increasingly the case that governance of the Internet can affect access
to online content.</p>
<p align="justify"><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/index.htm" target="_blank">The Internet Governance Forum (IGF)</a>
organised by the United Nations - which in December will hold its third
gathering in New Delhi - likely will see more issues related to
cybercriminality, anonymity and privacy, said Jeanette Hofmann,
researcher at the Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation at the
London School of Economics, and at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für
Sozialforschung, and member of the IGF Advisory Group.</p>
<p align="justify">New ICANN Board Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush <a href="http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-03jan08.htm" target="_blank">announced a "busy year"</a>
and a "birthday party" to take place at the annual meeting of ICANN,
which will be held not in the United States but in Africa in November
2008. The location for the birthday party may be seen as a small symbol
for ICANN's emphasis on its declared internationality. It has been the
United States' privileged position in ICANN and root server oversight
that gave the primary original impulse for the Internet governance
debate that has evolved so much over the past few years.</p>
<p align="justify">Weakening US Influence over Internet?</p>
<p align="justify">More and more governments have called for change in
the oversight structure for this tiny yet core part of the Internet and
will call for that again in the newly launched consultation of the US
Commerce Department National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA) on "The Continued Transition of the Technical
Coordination and Management of the Internet's Domain Name and
Addressing System."</p>
<p align="justify">The consultation (deadline for statements 15
February) is part of the midterm review of the "Joint Project Agreement
(JPA)" - the current agreement that binds ICANN to US government
oversight - and may allow the full privatisation of domain name system
(DNS) coordination after 2009.</p>
<p align="justify">ICANN posted its comment to the NTIA in January,
declaring: "The JPA is not longer necessary. Concluding it is the next
step in transition of the coordination of the domain name system to the
private sector."</p>
<p align="justify">ICANN's Board wrote to NTIA official Suzanne Sene
and said the JPA had been a necessary instrument in ICANN's formative
years. "But now," the board said, "the JPA contributes to a
misperception that the DNS is managed and overseen on a daily basis by
the US government. Ending the JPA will provide long-term stability and
security for a model that works." The Board underlined that the JPA
would not affect the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
contract that allows the US administration to check on changes in the
root zone, the heart of the DNS.</p>
<p align="justify">The incoming US administration could withdraw from
ICANN oversight, yet control over changes in the root zone, where vital
information on the Internet address system is kept, might be too
sensitive for any US administration. In fact, the US keeps arguing that
it has to ensure the stability and security of the system that
underlies a billion-dollar economy and has long become a key critical
infrastructure.</p>
<p align="justify">"The whole issue of security is drawing more and
more attention, not only from nation states, but also from civil
society," said Hofmann. The relationship between surveillance and
privacy, data protection and transparency remains to be clearly worked
out, she added. Identity management and authentication mechanisms rose
much higher on the Internet governance agenda last year, and are
expected to continue to do so, Hofmann said.</p>
<p>Fight for IP Rights</p>
<p align="justify">Intellectual property issues are in some aspects
also intermingled with security. Whether the registries for
country-code domains (such as .uk for the United Kingdom) should be
granted special rights over new country-code-oriented top-level domain
address zones, and be able to ask to be allocated the right to manage
these zones via a fast track procedure, is one of ICANN's questions in
this regard. Observers warn against possible domain islands under
strict state control.</p>
<p align="justify">At least some observers have followed anxiously
developments in Russia where some in the administration have been
reported to have shown interest in walling off the "Russian Internet."
ICANN has accepted that there is a strong demand for ccTLDs in native
scripts from a number of countries like China and several Arabic states
and a special working group has started talks about the possible fast
track procedure. But ICANN Chair Dengate Thrush spoke of a single
procedure for all new top-level domains coming up. The introduction of
new TLDs is a major issue for ICANN this year.</p>
<p align="justify">Meanwhile, the longstanding fight over how personal
data of individual domain name holders should be published in the
so-called Whois databases of domain name registries and registrars
might calm down, Hofmann said. ICANN staff finalised the procedure for
dealing with exemptions for registries and registrars from
jurisdictions with strong privacy regulation. Even if the United States
keeps pushing for open Whois, registries and registrars from other
countries can point to the need to adhere to their own national laws.</p>
<p align="justify">Yet according to a representative for the registrars
in ICANN's Generic Name Supporting Council it is not that easy at all.
It was all but clear what registries and registrars had to present to
be eligible for the exemptions as the procedure reads that only a
lawsuit or administrative procedure against them allowed to apply for
exceptional treatment.</p>
<p align="justify">Also, settlements of disputes over ownership of
domain names will continue to be important at ICANN and at the World
Intellectual Property Organization.</p>
<p>Debate over Governance Structure</p>
<p align="justify">Changes may also come in 2008 to the institutional
structure of Internet governance debates, Hofmann said. While the IGF
was established as a focal point for the wider Internet governance
debate - and ICANN will be kept under observation - she felt that there
was a shift of a lot of discussion to intergovernmental institutions,
back from self-governing bodies like the Internet Engineering Task
Force (a peer standardisation body for all Internet protocol-related
standards) to the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The
ITU has, for example, become more involved in security issues, last
year announcing a global <a href="http://www.itu.int/osg/csd/cybersecurity/gca/" target="_blank">cybersecurity agenda</a> after years of rivalry with ICANN.</p>
<p align="justify">More structural manoeuvring on who does what in
Internet governance is expected this year, according to Wolfgang
Kleinwächter, special advisor to the IGF Chair Nitin Desai. The
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has
invited UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon to give a keynote at its June
meeting on the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/site/0,3407,en_21571361_38415463_1_1_1_1_1,00.html" target="_blank">"Future of the Internet Economy"</a>, and Kleinwächter said this could be used by Ban for positioning of the UN in Internet governance.</p>
<p><i>Monika Ermert may be reached at <a href="mailto:info@ip-watch.ch" target="_blank">info@ip-watch.ch</a>.</i></p>