LOS ANGELES -- The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) today announced its participation in a broad partnership to improve public understanding of the vital importance of domain names and Internet governance. As part of a campaign coordinated by the Markle Foundation, CDT will work to inform public interest groups, policymakers, and the public at large about the individual liberty, consumer rights, and Internet governance issues raised by management of the domain name system, the Internet's central naming and numbering process. CDT is one of several organizations participating in the Markle effort, including Harvard's Berkman Center for the Internet and Society, the American Library Association, and Common Cause.

"Control over Internet names could ultimately impact vital public interests including free expression, personal privacy, and the structure of tomorrow's Internet," said CDT Executive Director Jerry Berman. "An open and accessible domain name system makes it possible for anyone to stand on a street corner in cyberspace and speak to the whole world. We need to make sure that domain name governance is consistent with our fundamental civil liberties. Public interest participation in and oversight of this governance system is essential to preserve those liberties."

"The global Internet community has embarked on a challenging new project to manage the domain name system," Mr. Berman said. "Serious public oversight will be needed to insure that domain name management remains a ministerial role, not a sweeping new governance project. With elections on the horizon for directors of the new ICANN domain name organization, it is particularly important that individuals and public interest groups get involved now."

As the Internet has transitioned from an isolated network of researchers to a mainstream communications medium, domain names have taken on new significance for the public. Millions of organizations and individuals have registered domain names today, with new conflicts arising over their allocation and use. As a result, domain name management has taken center stage in the Internet policy debate, prompting legislative proposals before the U.S. Congress as well as formation of the new Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) charged with global management of central Internet technical functions.

CDT believes that domain names management raises issues of access, openness, free expression and privacy that could affect individual Internet users everywhere. As part of its mission as an Internet policy organization, CDT has been committed to promoting the public voice in domain name management issues, including cosponsoring a workshop on "ICANN and the Public Interest" prior to this week's annual ICANN meeting in Los Angeles. For more information about CDT's Domain Name Governance projects, or other Internet policy work, visit CDT's Web site at: http://www.cdt.org/dns.

For further information, please contact CDT Executive Director Jerry Berman or Staff Counsel Alan Davidson at 703-850-9784 or Ari Schwartz at 202-637-9800.

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