[governance] Workshop Proposal: Transboundary Internet

Fri Apr 25 05:38:15 EDT 2008

Hi,

Thanks for these comments. SInce they are general enough to apply to  
any workshop proposal, thus they would also be useful to other IGC  
workshop, I'm adding below some personal thoughts.

Le 25 avr. 08 à 11:17, Jeanette Hofmann a écrit :

> Hi, I like and support this proposal. The only aspect I find a bit  
> too vague yet concerns the expected outcome. A real added value of  
> exploring the implications of the "various approaches to resolving  
> these issues" would be the prospect of some recommendations on  
> principles or strategies.

Indeed, we should make this clearer. We'll discuss inside the working  
group how we could best formulate this. Identifying a rapporteur role  
is probably crucial here, as the rapporteur would exactly does this:  
summarize (hopefully precise) recommendations from speakers and from  
the discussion with the workshop attendees.

> Another point: I would try to go for less people on the panel. The  
> more people on the panel, the less time for the audience to raise  
> questions and interact with the panel. Its not realistic to  
> restrict panelists to presentations of a few minutes only.

Agree, entirely. But always a tricky point.. Should probably be  
linked to the above comment on ability to propose precise  
recommendations.

Meryem

>
> Bret Fausett wrote:
>> All, below is a draft workshop proposal that Meryem Marzouki,  
>> William Drake, Ian Peter, Parminder Singh and I have been working  
>> on. We plan to submit it by the deadline, but would like your  
>> input and suggestions, on all aspects.
>>      -- Bret
>> - - - - - D R A F T - - - - -
>> 1.    Name of proposed workshop
>> The Transboundary Internet: Jurisdiction, Control and Sovereignty
>> 2.    Provide a concise description of the proposed workshop theme  
>> including its importance and relevance to the IGF.
>> The Internet crosses the boundaries of all nations and raises some  
>> unique transboundary jurisdictional problems. The recent case of a  
>> British citizen living in Spain, with Internet servers in the  
>> Bahamas, selling holidays to Cuba, and having his domain name  
>> impounded by a registrar located in the USA because it appeared to  
>> break the US embargo against Cuba is one recent case in point.  
>> Another landmark case was the French-US Yahoo! case in 1999  
>> dealing with sale of nazi memorabilia, but but apart from these  
>> high profile content cases there are many examples in other areas  
>> such as privacy, consumer issues, cybercrime, and intellectual  
>> property.
>> This workshop will discuss the many implications of competing  
>> national jurisdictions being projected into a globalized space  
>> where multiple normative sources apply, such as political, legal,  
>> technical, contractual, and behavioral regulations. Through  
>> practical case studies, this workshop will look at the  
>> implications of various approaches to resolving these issues and  
>> the implications for Internet governance, international law,  
>> national sovereignty, democracy, and human rights and fundamental  
>> freedoms.
>> The workshop also explores the implications for Internet  
>> governance where no structures are in place to deal with emerging  
>> issues, and how default unilateral action in the absence of  
>> structural alternatives can lead to de facto Internet governance.
>> 3.    Provide the names and affiliations of the panellists you are  
>> planning to invite. Describe the main actors in the field and  
>> whether you have approached them about their willingness to  
>> participate in proposed workshop.
>> NB. Workshop duration is 90mn, which means that we should have no  
>> more than 6-7 panelists plus chair. This is a tentative list of  
>> speakers.
>> •    Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, Deputy Secretary General, The  
>> Council of Europe
>> •    Manon Ress /James Love, Knowledge Ecology International/ 
>> CPTech, USA
>> •    Meryem Marzouki, President, European Digital Rights, Europe
>> •    Bret A. Fausett, Internet law Attorney, Cathcart, Collins &  
>> Kneafsey, LLP USA
>> •    Ian Peter, Internet Analyst, Ian Peter and Associates, Australia
>> •    William Drake, Graduate Institute of International and  
>> Development Studies, Switzerland
>> Yet to be approached: other identified experts with various  
>> perspectives on specific case studies.
>> Themes to be discussed by speakers:
>> •    Liability and the principle of the country of origin (off- 
>> line and on-line content): Convention on Transfrontier television,  
>> Rome II, Convention on TV without Frontiers,
>> •    Consumer protection, contracts, etc.: Hague Convention, E- 
>> commerce directive
>> •    Cybercrime: The CoE Convention, its protocols and  
>> implementation activities
>> •    Technical and contractual means: ISP charters and hotlines,  
>> blocking (cf. Pakistan case)
>> •    Harmonization of national laws through intergovernmental  
>> agreements
>> 4.    Provide the name of the organizer(s) of the workshop and  
>> their affiliation to various stakeholder groups. Describe how you  
>> will take steps to adhere to the multi-stakeholder principle,  
>> geographical diversity and gender balance.
>> -    The Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus (Civil society)
>> -    The Council of Europe – TBC (Intergovernmental organization)
>> -    European Digital Rights (Civil society)
>> -    Knowledge Ecology International (KEI/CPTech) – TBC (Civil  
>> society)
>> -    Ian Peter and Associates – TBC (Private sector)
>> Yet to be approached: Some governments (e.g. France, USA,  
>> Netherlands, ...); other intergovernmental organizations (e.g.  
>> OSCE, OCDE,...), other private sector constituencies (e.g. ISP  
>> associations, newspaper associations, registrars, search engine/ 
>> social networking companies, ...); other civil society  
>> constituencies.
>> 5.    Does the proposed workshop provide different perspectives on  
>> the issues under discussion?
>> Yes. Expertise is being sought from various areas to provide a  
>> comprehensive coverage of issues and perspectives involved (to be  
>> updated later).
>> 6.    Please explain how the workshop will address issues relating  
>> to Internet governance and describe how the workshop conforms with  
>> the Tunis Agenda in terms of substance and the mandate of the IGF.
>> The first and foremost need for global Internet governance  
>> arrangements comes from the global, cross-boundaries nature of the  
>> Internet. Issues with global Internet governance are not only  
>> related to critical Internet resources management, but also to the  
>> circulation of content and data and to the protection of the  
>> general communications infrastructure. Jurisdictions, control and  
>> sovereignty issues are thus at the heart of global Internet  
>> governance discussions. Given the difficulty to harmonize national  
>> legislations, and given the issue of the competence of  
>> jurisdictions, alternative methods to State regulations are more  
>> and more considered, promoted and implemented. It is the very aim  
>> of this workshop to explore and discuss these alternatives.
>> TA: Para 72(b)(c)(g)(i)(k)
>> 7.    List similar events you and/or any other IGF workshops you  
>> have organized in the past.
>> The Civil,Society Internet Governance Caucus and other sponsors  
>> have organized workshops at previous IGF meetings (to be updated  
>> later)
>> 8.    Were you part of organizing a workshop last year? Which one?  
>> Did you submit a workshop report?
>> Yes (to be updated with list of previous workshops)
>> 9.    Under which of the five IGF themes does the proposal fall  
>> under ?
>> •    Managing the Internet (Using the Internet)
>> •    Arrangements for Internet governance
>> - - - - - D R A F T - - - - -
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