1. ACTIVITIES

            Restructuring of Public Policy segment of ISOC web site - ISOC will soon have a new page on its web site: ISOC PUBLIC POLICY ACTIVITIES. The page will include new material and bring together, under one Public Policy heading, links to a sizeable amount of material that was previously available under some other headings on the site. In addition, there will be an expanded group of links to other web sites dealing with policy issues on the Internet.

            Press release re Internationalized Domain Names (November)

            Attendance at Global Network and Resource Initiative Meeting (New York, November 21, 2000, Markle Foundation)

            Presentations to Chicago Humanities Festival (November), Harvard Club of Chicago (October), and Chicago Bar Association (October).

            Participation in Chicago Chapter of ISOC

            Public Policy monthly updates in Inside ISOC

            Public Policy articles for e-On the Internet, and Spring-Summer Issue of On the Internet

2. AGENDA

            A. Internet Governance     

            The most critical public policy issue affecting the Internet remains the same - namely, its governance. The ISOC Board of Trustees will face a continuing challenge to define the role of ISOC in the developing structure of non-governmental technical coordination of the Internet.

            ICANN’s legal authority for “technical management of the Internet” (in ICANN’s own words) remains in doubt. A connected issue is ICANN’s ability to finance its operations.

            ICANN’s General Counsel recently acknowledged that "ICANN cannot, and has no legal authority to, implement new top level domain names; that authority currently resides in the Department of Commerce." Also, "no foreign government owns its ccTLD or can order ICANN or the Department of Commerce to take any actions with respect to a ccTLD." (Declaration in Economic Solutions, Inc. v. ICANN, U.S. Dist. Ct., E.D. MO)

            The question of  ICANN’s influence over ccTLDs is the subject of  ICANN’s “Discussion Draft of Letter to Governments Regarding ccTLD Managers” (12 November, 2000).  ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee had asked ICANN to “write to the relevant governments and public authorities to ascertain their views concerning the current delegation for the ccTLDs that correspond to their jurisdictions." The draft letter asks for these views, and goes on to state that ICANN intends to enter into contracts, not with the governments, but rather with the ccTLD managers.

            There are two serious problems with this plan. A number of ccTLD managers and governments have indicated that they are (1) unwilling to enter into such contracts and (2) unwilling to pay the assessments voted by ICANN.

            Assuming that  ICANN is able to overcome these objections and enter into private contracts with a significant number of ccTLD managers, it will then be in a position to accept a transfer of responsibility from the U.S. Department of Commerce. This, however, depends on whether the U.S. Department of Commerce is able to make the transfer.

            In July, 2000, the U.S. General Accounting Office made a study of the relationship of the Department and ICANN. The study supported ICANN’s activities but questioned whether a transition of administrative control of the Internet would “involve a transfer of government property to a private entity. If so, the transfer would have to be consistent with federal property laws.” (p. 26)  The study further states that it is “unclear if the Department has the requisite authority to effect such a transfer” and that the Department “has no current plans to transfer policy authority for the authoritative root server to ICANN, nor has it developed a scenario or set of circumstances under which such control would be transferred.”(p. 27)

            Under these circumstances, the proposed transfer of responsibility is not likely to happen soon. This interferes with the corporation’s efforts to find a stable source of income. It is also a problem because it interferes with ICANN’s ability to deal with truly technical administrative issues such as internationalized domain names, where economic interests may be in conflict with sound engineering practice.

            ICANN has announced its initial selection of new registry operators for additional generic TLDs.  This selection must be approved by the Department of Commerce, which has been warned by two members of the U.S. Congress not to take action until hearings are held on the status of competition among registries. In addition, and regardless of the merits of the proposals for new gTLDs, there is a strong possibility that ICANN’s selection will result in litigation in U.S. courts which in turn could result in authoritative legal answers to the questions raised above. The answers may or may not be favorable to ICANN.

            The challenge to the ISOC Board is to deal with developments as they may arise in the political and judicial arena while supporting the further development of an Internet technical administration system in which decisions on technical issues are made by qualified technical authorities.

B. Other Public Policy Issues

            Many highly controversial issues continue to attract attention from interest groups around the world. The new ISOC PUBLIC POLICY ACTIVITIES web site should provide a useful resource for users of the Internet, with an opportunity to find contrasting viewpoints on such issues as:

            1.Censorship and freedom of expression

            2. Protection of privacy

            3. The “Digital Divide”

            4. Taxation

            5. Trademarks

            6. Copyright (including Data Base Protection; MP3, Napster, Gnutella, Scour)

            7. Acceptable Use Policies

8. Access to the Internet

9. Business method patents

 ISOC publications, especially On the Internet in electronic and hard copy format, will cover these issues, and the ISTF will provide a forum for members to become involved in the debates.          

C. Planned Activities

            1. First priority is restructure of  ISOC PUBLIC POLICY ACTIVITIES web site.

            2. At INET 2001 in Stockholm, I have proposed a panel discussion of the technologies that are having a major impact on copyright protection -  MP3, Napster, Gnutella, Scour and encryption defeating technologies. The panel should focus primarily on the technical aspects with commentary from the legal perspective. The wealth of technical expertise at INET should furnish resources for a uniquely valuable discussion.

            3. . SoftCom, a new Platinum-level sponsor of ISOC, has generously allocated its contribution to the Public Policy area. I plan to work with the Vice President - Organizational Membership to assist ISOC in attaining increased visibility as the organization best qualified to speak for the Internet technical community.

                                                                        Respectfully submitted,

                                                                        David W. Maher

                                                                        Vice President - Public Policy