Among directions for ICANN to expand its mission, only one is legitimate, a spokesman for Internet companies said Wed.: Creating a multilingual Internet. In a conference call ahead of next week’s Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Athens, NetChoice Coalition Exec. Dir. Steve DelBianco said the group wants a “firewall” to keep inappropriate tasks from being forced on ICANN by dictatorial regimes, economic- justice activists and companies. NetChoice includes AOL, VeriSign, Yahoo, Oracle and eBay. The IGF grew out of international ire at the leading U.S. role in ICANN and congressional support of that role, he said. Govts. have legitimate reasons to want to build Internet “capacity” -- give developing nations their own ccTLDs, enact consumer protection measures to stop spam and protect intellectual property and ensure Internet integrity by fighting phishing and ensuring sites are authentic, DelBianco said. But those goals aren’t ICANN’s business; it should be focusing on DNS security and stability, he added. According to DelBianco, especially bad ideas for new ICANN jurisdiction include: (1) Subsidizing infrastructure in poor countries via a version of the Universal Service Fund, based on DNS fees, emerging from the voluntary Digital Solidarity Fund (WID Feb 28/05 p1). The South Centre and Assn. for Progressive Communications urge a “parallel” agenda at IGF to focus on funding for developing nations. (2) Foisting open-source software and the Open Document Format on registries, registrars and others touching core Internet functions, a Sun proposal that is “transparently self serving” and would “corrupt” the IGF. (3) Closing the Whois database, pushed by the Internet Governance Project, to guard registrant privacy. The FTC has said that would cut off a primary investigative tool for agency consumer-protection cases, DelBianco said. (4) The least justifiable goal for ICANN is thinly veiled censorship, pushed by China, Iran and Zimbabwe, whose Pres. Robert Mugabe has said an open Internet promotes “nihilistic” viewpoints, DelBianco said. Those countries would ask a newly empowered ICANN to revoke domain names for websites considered offensive, he said. Groups pushing for those additions to ICANN’s jurisdiction are “putting their own agendas at risk” by “wasting time” and scarce resources lobbying a forum that surely will spurn them, he said. “Even if ICANN means to say no, it takes several years” due to its decision-making means, DelBianco said. The firewall NetChoice wants isn’t a “brick wall,” he added. UNESCO and the Native Language Internet Consortium seek internationalized domain names (IDNs), which have their own program at ICANN that “needs to move faster,” he said. Generic TLDs must use ASCII characters to work, a “significant inconvenience” for many foreign users. NetChoice belongs to the ICANN Business Constituency, which gives IDNs higher priority than new gTLDs (WID Aug 22 p2). ICANN “will never satisfy many of the groups” meeting in Athens, but its jurisdiction must remain limited to preserve the IGF’s goals of freedom of expression, consumer protection and interoperability, he said.
On October 19, 2006, the President continued for one year the national emergency that was declared on October 21, 1995 by Executive Order (EO) 12978 with respect to significant narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia. (FR Pub 10/20/06, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/06-8840.pdf)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a notice announcing that it is establishing a new committee, the Homeland Security Information Network Advisory Committee (HSINAC). DHS states that HSINAC is being established to provide organizationally independent advice and recommendations to the leadership of DHS on the requirements of end users within State, local, Federal and tribal governments and the Private Sector regarding the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN). (D/N DHS-2006-0059, FR Pub 10/20/06, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/E6-17603.pdf)
GENEVA -- National delegates will draft a resolution on a common alerting protocol (CAP) for public warning systems, and on the wider issue of information and communication technology standards for public warning, they agreed here last week. The resolution will go to ITU member countries to consider at a Nov. policy-making conference.
The divestiture of 2.5 GHz and 2.3 GHz spectrum held by BellSouth in the Southeast as a condition of the AT&T- BellSouth merger has emerged as one of the issues getting significant discussion at the Commission, as commissioners and their staff hash out a final merger order. Sources said Comrs. Copps and Adelstein have made spectrum one of the key issues to earn their support. But AT&T and BellSouth are considered unlikely to budge and concede divestiture of the spectrum as a concession to win approval of their merger.
The EC sued Sweden for failing to end the monopoly of state-owned Boxer TV-Access AB on providing access control services in the country’s digital terrestrial broadcasting network, it said Tues. Under the e-communications regulatory framework, EU countries had until July 2003 to abolish monopoly rights for broadcasting transmission services. The referral to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is the step toward punishing a member nation for violating EU rules. Competition Comr. Neelie Kroes said she regretted the referral “but Swedish viewers should no longer be denied their right… to choose digital terrestrial TV suppliers.” On Mon., the EC formally asked Greece to comply with a 2005 ECJ ruling requiring it to adopt into national law the EU directive liberalizing broadcasting services. Greece enacted the e-communications framework but excluded broadcasting services, saying a new media law would govern such services. But the EC said, no such measure has emerged 1- years after the court ruling.
American Shipper reports that at the August 3, 2006 meeting of the Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection and Related Homeland Security Functions (COAC), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officially pronounced dead a rule in the works that would have required exporters to apply a high-security seal on every container, and ocean carriers to check they were secure at the port prior to vessel loading. According to the article, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) continues to evaluate the potential for using an internal container security device (CSD) and other types of electronic seal technologies. (See ITT's Online Archives or 05/23/06 news, 06052310, for BP summary on CBP officials' statements that DHS' seal rule was "on hold.")(American Shipper, September 2006, www.americanshipper.com.)
A national emergency alert system was set in motion by a law President Bush signed Fri. giving the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) 6 months to set up warning procedures. The wireless industry embraced the law’s voluntary process as preferable to a mandatory path being considered in an FCC rulemaking. Carriers opting out of the system must tell customers only that devices they use won’t carry the alerts.
An FCC vote on the BellSouth-AT&T merger at today’s (Thurs.) meeting appeared in doubt at our deadline. Detailed talks between Chmn. Martin and the Democratic commissioners are just beginning, sources said and seem less advanced than at the same point before a July vote on the Adelphia/Time Warner/Comcast license transfer. Complicating things is that Martin leaves Sat. morning for Asia, making it tough to move the meeting date. Wed.’s DoJ approval came amid questions about Tunney Act oversight and possible department maneuvering to avoid it.
An FCC vote on the BellSouth-AT&T merger at today’s (Thurs.) meeting appeared in doubt at our deadline. Detailed talks between Chmn. Martin and the Democratic commissioners are just beginning, sources said. Complication: Martin leaves Sat. morning for Asia, making it tough to move the meeting date.