Michael Geist's study of governments and domain names [ip]
Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2003 10:06:53 -0500
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@xxxxxxxx>
---
Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2003 10:28:22 -0500
To: declan@xxxxxxxx
From: Michael Geist <mgeist@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Global study on governments and domain names
Of possible interest to your readers -- my regular column features coverage
of the results of a global study jointly conducted by the ITU and myself on
the role of national governments and their national domains. The study,
which covered 56 countries from every global region and a broad
cross-section of developed and developing countries, finds that virtually
every government that responded to the survey either manages, retains
direct control, or is contemplating formalizing its relationship with its
ccTLD. The column concludes that the debate at next week's World Summit on
the Information Society is not whether governments should be involved in
Internet governance, but rather how they will be involved in the issue.
Governments and ccTLDs: A Global Survey at
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/geistgovernmentcctlds.pdf
Column at
<http://shorl.com/fastokobruhako> [Toronto Star]
Think Web's virtually government free? Think again
MICHAEL GEIST
LAW BYTES
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which will be held next
week in Geneva, promises to be one of the most interesting
technology-related events in recent memory. The result of months of
discussion, the meeting will attract more than 50 heads of state and 6,000
delegates who will address issues from the digital divide to Internet
governance.
Internet governance questions have proved to be the most contentious during
the lengthy preparations for the summit. At the global level, the domain
name system is administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit corporation in California. While ICANN
enjoys support from the United States as well as the governments of several
other developed countries, including Canada, many countries worldwide have
begun to voice the view that all governments should share in the
administration of the domain name system. Largely absent from the Internet
governance debate in the late 1990s, these countries have awoken to its
importance and have sought to place the issue firmly on the global agenda.
The push for greater governmental involvement in the domain name system,
however, has many critics. Reflecting the popular notion that the
Internet's remarkable growth has come largely without governmental
regulation, critics of increased governmental participation in Internet
governance believe the domain name system is best left to a decentralized,
self-regulatory approach.
A new study I jointly conducted with the International Telecommunications
Union (ITU), a United Nations agency, is being released today. It casts
doubt on the perception that governments are not already active
participants on Internet governance issues. In fact, governments commonly
view their national domain names as critical public resources that must be
subject to governmental oversight. Given the near-ubiquitous role of
government at the national level, it should therefore come as little
surprise that governments have begun to seek a similarly influential role
at the international level, where policy decisions may have a direct impact
on their national domains.
The study surveyed all 189 ITU member states on the role of national
governments within their domestic, country-code top-level domain (ccTLD).
The survey featured questions on the policies of their national domains and
governmental involvement in national and international Internet governance
issues.
Fifty-six countries, representing every global region as well as a broad
cross-section of developed and developing countries, responded to the
survey. This includes the very large, including the United States, Canada,
China, Japan, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, and South Korea, as well as
the very small, including Seychelles, Burkina Faso, the Dominican Republic,
Luxembourg and Cambodia.
Contrary to most expectations, the study finds virtually every government
that responded to the survey either manages, retains direct control, or is
contemplating formalizing its relationship with its ccTLD. This is true
even for governments, such as the United States, that generally adopt a
free-market approach to Internet matters.
When asked about governmental involvement with their ccTLD, 47 per cent of
responding governments said they retain ultimate control over their ccTLD
by either running the domain as a public entity or enacting legislation
granting themselves control over its administration. A further 25 per cent
have taken steps to assert ultimate authority over their national ccTLD,
while 20 per cent of respondents said they were considering formalizing
their relationship with their ccTLD and expected that relationship to
change in the future. Only 7 per cent of governments said they had no role
in their ccTLD and had no plans to alter the present situation.
While the survey reveals an increasing consensus among governments on the
need to assert a proprietary interest in their national ccTLD, it also
uncovers striking differences in the commercial approaches of those domains.
Domain names are typically administered by one of four types of entities at
the national level:
* Public institutions.
* Non-profit entities.
* Academic institutions and individuals.
* Commercial companies.
The difference in approach often has a significant impact on both
commercial and policy priorities.
Responding countries with public ccTLDs consistently ranked the public
interest and the protection of intellectual property rights as top
priorities, while the number of domain name registrations was viewed as the
least critical priority. As the ccTLDs move toward increasing
commercialization, the data suggest priorities begin to invert as the
public interest and intellectual property protection diminish in
importance, while the number of domain name registrations increase in priority.
This finding is supported by the fact that public ccTLDs are far more
likely to include restrictions on domain name registrations that limit
access to the domain to only those registrants who comply with national
presence requirements. Those domains appear willing to forego larger
registration numbers in favour of protecting the public interest -
seemingly defined to include limitations on registrations designed to
preserve the national character of a ccTLD.
With governments already actively participating in the Internet regulatory
and policy process at home, they were bound to demand similar involvement
internationally. The true debate at next week's summit is therefore not
whether governments should be involved in Internet governance. Rather it is
how they will be involved.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law
at the University of Ottawa and technology counsel with the law firm Osler
Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. He is on-line at http://www.michaelgeist.ca and
http://www.osler.com (mgeist@xxxxxxxxxx). The opinions expressed herein are
personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Ottawa
or Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP.
--
**********************************************************************
Professor Michael A. Geist
Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law
University of Ottawa Law School, Common Law Section
Technology Counsel, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
57 Louis Pasteur St., P.O. Box 450, Stn. A, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5
Tel: 613-562-5800, x3319 Fax: 613-562-5124
mgeist@xxxxxxxxx http://www.michaelgeist.ca
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