[governance] IG questions that are not ICANN [was: Irony]

[Milton L Mueller]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alejandro Pisanty [mailto:apisan at servidor.unam.mx]
>
> 2. my question to Milton whether there is really interest in any Internet
> Governance question that is not ICANN;

There is strong interest here in many IG issues that are not purely ICANN. I see four main categories:

1. Internet security governance, and the related privacy issues. These issues intersect with ICANN (DNSSEC, Whois, certain aspects of the IPv6 transition) but go beyond it (spam, viruses, phishing, DDoS attacks, transnational cooperation among CERTS; routing security; transnational surveillance and data retention; digital identity)

2. Transnational content regulation. A big push to regulate content in the name of child abuse was evident at Rio; at the same time, human rights NGOs sought to advance or solidify global commitments to free expression on the internet (AI, Bill of Rights, Net Neutrality). Here too, there is an intersection with ICANN issues, as when ICANN develops new global standards to regulate the semantic content of new top-level domain names.

3. Intellectual property (at the global level). The "France to Require ISPs to Filter Infringing Music" is an example of how copyright protection can intersect with IG issues. IPRs do however intersect in many ways with domain name and Whois issues, as you know, AP. 

4. Trade & competition policy. A variety of international economic regulatory issues ranging from Internet interconnection arrangements to market dominance by MS or Google to content regulations that act as trade barriers fall in this category. These too intersect with IPR issues (TRIPS) and ICANN issues (e.g., IP address markets, whether national ccTLD monopolies will be privileged with new IDNs before anyone else, etc.) 

You ask whether there is "still a chance for anything productive to be done in this list with the participation of people who think that ICANN is more half-full than half-empty?" My answer is of course there is. The discussion would be impoverished otherwise. As I have shown in the categories above, ICANN is a central institution and its activities intersect with all four of them. I think ICANN defenders need to move beyond their obsession with the "are you for us or against us" question, which is really getting old, and deal with the substantive policy issues and the accountability questions. Most of us so-called "ICANN critics" have always been concerned about substantive policy issues; the criticisms stem from disagreement with the policy directions it has taken and (not unrelated) its susceptibility to influence from interest groups (trademark and copyright) or political powers (USG, GAC) due to its imperfect structure. 




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