[governance] Big Porn v. Big Web Ruling Could Spell Trouble for ICANN / was Re: new gTLDs

[Pranesh Prakash]

parminder [2012-09-11 23:52]:
> On Tuesday 11 September 2012 11:44 PM, Pranesh Prakash wrote:
>> Which law would you like ICANN to be subject to?  After all, given that
>> they are a brick-and-mortar organization, they will have to subject
>> themselves to one nation's law or another's.  Which one should it be, then?
>
> Pranesh, you work with WIPO which is a brick and mortar organisation which
> , in terms of its substantive work, is subject to no nation's jurisdiction.
> It is only subject to international law. In fact all UN organisations are
> brick and mortar organisations, arent they; they are physically located in
> one country or the other without their substantive activities being subject
> to the respective national law.

There's a difference between WIPO and ICANN.  Almost none of WIPO's 
decisions are self-executing: the existence of something like the WIPO 
Copyright Treaty doesn't mean countries automatically follow it.  However, 
ICANN (and IANA) allowing a registry for a new TLD means that anyone using 
the standard root automatically has access to that TLD.  In that sense, 
decisions made by ICANN/IANA are self-executing — unlike most other UN 
bodies, whose policies outcomes need either prior- or post-outcome 
endorsement in some treaty and in national accession.

And for what it's worth, WIPO *is* subject to Swiss laws on everything from 
fire safety onwards.  And for what it's worth, the decision by the WIPO 
secretariat to provide technological support in the form of computers to 
Iran and North Korea, inter alia, to upgrade their patent offices has come 
under the scrutiny of the American Congress for provision of dual-use 
technology — whether rightly or wrongly so.

> Do I take from your framing of the above question that, therefore, you are
> fine for a global governance institution like ICANN to be subject to US's
> law and jurisdiction in terms of its substantive governance activities?

A question isn't an argument, and people's view are often more complicated 
than binaries.  Testing the alternatives' worthiness doesn't mean giving up 
on the quest to find viable alternatives.

-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Policy Director
Centre for Internet and Society
T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org
PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: @pranesh_prakash

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