CDT POLICY POST Volume 6, Number 21 November 27, 2000

A BRIEFING ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES AFFECTING CIVIL LIBERTIES ONLINE
from
THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY

CONTENTS:
(1) ICANN RECAP: NEW TOP-LEVEL DOMAINS, STUDY OF PUBLIC REPRESENTATION
(2) ICANN SELECTS SEVEN NEW TOP-LEVEL DOMAINS
(3) PROPOSED STUDY OF THE PUBLIC'S VOICE IN ICANN

(1) DOMAIN NAMES BODY CHOOSES NEW DOMAINS, BEGINS STUDY OF PUBLIC PROCESSES

In a move that will change the landscape of cyberspace, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) selected seven new top-level domain strings to augment ".com," ".net," and ".org." At its annual meeting in Los Angeles November 16, ICANN directed its staff to begin final negotiations with the applicants for the ".info," ".biz," ".name," ".pro," ".museum," ".coop," and ".aero" domains. Final agreements are expected by the end of the year, and shortly thereafter Internet users should have their first chance to register names in the new spaces.

The selection of new domains is the most visible action yet by ICANN, a technical management organization tasked with coordinating certain central naming and numbering functions for the Internet. The TLD selection demonstrates how ICANN's decisions can have a broad impact on Internet users, and highlights the need to find ways to include the public's interests in ICANN's decisions. CDT and other organizations have for some time urged ICANN to be more open to input from non-commercial and public interest organizations in its activities.

ICANN's activity last week was not limited to new Top-Level Domains. ICANN also set in motion a major study of its recent election of At-Large Board Members by Internet users around the world. ICANN will soon be taking comments on a plan to establish a Study Commission that will evaluate last month's elections and consider whether ICANN should even have such At-Large members. Due to be completed in about six months, the study will set the stage for a major debate about the future of public representation within ICANN.

(2) ICANN SELECTS SEVEN NEW TOP-LEVEL DOMAINS

On November 16, the ICANN Board selected seven finalists for new Top-Level Domain names (TLDs). TLDs are the final part of an Internet domain name, like ".com," ".org," or ".edu." The ICANN staff is now expected to carry out final negotiations with the applicants for ".info," ".biz," ".name," ".coop," ".museum," ".pro," and ".aero" names, and the new names could be in use by early next year.

The exact method or even date on which the new domains will become available has not been announced. The FTC has issued a warning concerning potentially misleading pre-registration schemes, and new registrants should exercise care. See http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/domainalrt.htm

The ICANN Board considered forty-four applications at its recent meeting. Each applicant paid a non-refundable $50,000 application fee to ICANN, creating a very substantial bar to entry into the process. This fee sparked significant concerns by CDT and others that ICANN had denied many non-commercial and public interest organizations an opportunity to participate in this critical first rollout.

In its deliberations, the ICANN Board steered clear of controversial, content-restricted domains such as the adult-oriented ".xxx," citing the inappropriate expansion of ICANN's authority that would be associated with those domains. As was noted at the ICANN meeting, there is no international consensus on what materials belong in either a ".xxx" or ".kids" domain. While they seek to address important online issues, these kinds of domain spaces raise significant questions about the right to free expression that ICANN is in no position to resolve.

Though the new domains that ICANN selected do not limit the content that domain name holders may post, they do impose other kinds of restrictions. Of the seven new domains, all but one propose to set limits on who can get names; ".biz" will be limited to bona fide businesses, ".aero" to members of the air transport industry, and so on. Only ".info" will be completely unrestricted in its application, and names will be open to any member of the Internet community wishing to express his or her views online. In addition, the ".name" domain will be open to individuals engaged in non-commercial activity.

CDT remains concerned about the closed nature of many of the new domains. Balance is needed as ICANN considers future TLD additions. By creating spaces that welcome expressive or non-commercial activity, ICANN could go a long way towards securing the Internet's open and diverse character. Though this first set of applications was not especially broad in this area, future rounds of selection may be more open to voices in the public interest.

The fate of the remaining thirty-seven applications is uncertain. ICANN has not yet announced additional rounds of Top-Level Domain selection, though most Internet observers agree that more new TLDs are likely. Whether the remaining applications will be rolled over into the new selection processes, or dropped entirely will presumably be addressed by ICANN in the future.

(3) PROPOSED STUDY OF THE PUBLIC'S VOICE IN ICANN

While the approval of new "Top-Level Domains" was the lead story out of ICANN's annual meeting, other events of great long-term significance took place that highlight continuing concern over the proper role and representative structure of the domain names management body. The ICANN Board set in motion a study of the makeup of ICANN's Board of Directors and of October's election of new Directors to that Board. In that election, some 34,000 Internet users elected five "At-Large" members to ICANN's nineteen-member Board. The evaluation will provide a foundation for a critical discussion next year on the future of ICANN's elections and At-Large membership, and the possibilities for broad stakeholder input into ICANN's decisions.

As a first step, ICANN has released a proposal by ICANN staff that a committee be established to preside loosely over a number of independent groups that would carry out diverse, parallel studies of their own. If the Board eventually implements this proposal, the Study Committee will consist of 5-9 members, with one a member of the Board and the rest representative of a diversity of Internet interests.

The parallel studies would be of varying scope and scale, and the committee would examine their findings for evidence of consensus points. Finally, the committee would distill those consensus points into a set of recommendations, submitted to the Board at its meeting in Stockholm on June 4, 2001.

The Internet public will have thirty days to comment on the proposed system. The public comment forum should be accessible shortly from ICANN's main page at http://www.icann.org/.

To ensure that the ICANN's processes are examined with an eye to the interests of the Internet public, CDT will soon begin work on a study of its own, evaluating the At-Large process and submitting recommendations on the future of the public voice. That study will be taking shape over the next few weeks.

The ICANN staff proposal for a study committee can be found at http://www.icann.org/at-large/staff-recommendation-study-15nov00.htm.

Detailed information about online civil liberties issues may be found at http://www.cdt.org/.

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Policy Post 6.21 Copyright 2000 Center for Democracy and Technology