Personal Comments on the WIPO/ICANN Process

Here comes WIPO2

WIPO has announced a second 'domain name process' in which it appears WIPO will discuss the issues which even WIPO thought were too controversial for the first WIPO DNS process. As preparation for this second round of discussion, WIPO appears to have deleted all the working documents from the first process from its web site. Only the final report and the account of the regional consultations remain.

Even if other people may find it hard to learn from the first process, it is clear that WIPO itself has learned important lessons. So far at least, there is no mention of a pesky "experts group" this time -- so no fear of having a dissenting report! -- plus there appear to be no "regional consultations" scheduled for places that have large numbers of internet users -- nothing in North America, Japan, or Western Europe. Less danger of hearing something you might not like?

Unofficial copies of the outrageous Working Group B Report and the accompanying attachment. Stay tuned for commentary....

ICANN Comments

Comments on ICANN's proposed Uniform Dispute Policy & Rules (Oct. 13, 1999)

Comments on proposed changes to ICANN By-laws (Oct. 22, 1999)

• Joe Sims's Reply
• My Response
• Joe Sims's latest

Other ICANN-related comments and papers

Of Governments and Governance, a paper delivered at a conference on "The Legal and Policy Framework for Global Electronic Commerce: a Progress Report".

My slides from a talk called "The Root of all Evil?" presented at the CPSR conference Sept. 25, 1999. Powerpoint .ppt file; or as HTML. CPSR has also posted an excellent summary of my talk.

A preliminary draft of my TPRC paper: Semi-Private International Rulemaking: Lessons Learned from the WIPO Domain Name Process (in .pdf format).

Some thoughts on how ICANN might introduce instant accountability by signing A Contract With The Internet.

Other ICANN Sites of Interest

• ICANN
• The World Internetworking Alliance (maintained by Anthony Rutkowski). Note especially the ICANN organizational chart. Wow.

Commentary on WIPO's Final Report on Domain Names

I invite you to read version 1.0 of my Commentary on WIPO's The Management of Internet Names And Addresses: Intellectual Property Issues. Also available in a pdf version.

Recent Actions Related to WIPO Report

Unofficial (but very interesting)

Other Links of Interest

• Comments of Harald Tveit Alvestrand, Member WIPO Panel of Experts
• ICANN's list of comments received relating to WIPO report
• Petition to ICANN and the U.S. Dept. Of Commerce asking that WIPO report be sent to DNSO's and not be voted on by interim ICANN board.
• This article quotes ICANN President Michael Roberts as saying, in response to the petition, "The report is done, and there's absolutely no reason at this point that delay would advance anyone's interest. I think it's very unconstructive and sort of juvenile to be so arrogant as to take the position that this work is not worthy of substantive comment."
• A thoughtful argument that the institutional mechanisms for adopting the WIPO do not appear to be in place, and it unclear that this is an appropriate decision for the Interim Board appears in the comments of Prof. Jonathan Weinberg to ICANN. Read the MS Word document.
• I have some thoughts on the nature of quasi-private decisionmaking by bodies such as WIPO and ICANN

Commentary on RFC 3

Acrobat PDF version 1.0a
This version has correct formatting, but inoperative hyperlinks.

Word Perfect 8 version 1.0a
Correct formatting, working hyperlinks.  Converts poorly to Word.

HTML version 1.0a
Imperfect formatting, working hyperlinks.  Please note that due to differences between browsers, the paragraph numbering in the HTML version may differ significantly from the original.

revised Oct. 27, 1999 since counting restarted Nov. 10, 1999.
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