Governments and the multi-stakeholder model of internet governance
The future of the multi-stakeholder model of internet governance, which ICANN advocates, is in the spotlight.
On the last day of ICANN’s Beijing meeting, 11 April 2013, the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) issued a Communiqué, which for IP owners was good and bad in equal measure. What was good was the idea of six safeguards to protect consumers from bad actor registry operators. What was bad was the idea that Governments should have a veto over which applied-for registries go live.
The GAC’s Communiqué recommended six safeguards to apply to all new gTLDs: WHOIS verification and checks, mitigating abuse activity, security checks, documentation, making and handling complaints, and consequences. A “non-exhaustive” list of applications, across 13 categories, containing at least 517 strings, was then identified to which these safeguards should apply. According to the GAC, these strings are likely to “invoke a level of implied trust from consumers” and “carry higher levels of risk associated with consumer harm”. Strings affected by GAC safeguard advice comprise those from categories including: children; environmental; health and fitness; financial; gambling; charity; education; intellectual property; professional services; corporate identifiers; generic geographic terms; inherently government functions; and strings susceptible to cyberbullying/harassment.
Reactions to the Communiqué, including those expressed formally through the public comment period, have been divided. While many members of the IP profession welcome the safeguards as a valid means of limiting abusive behaviours, there is discontent that they were developed behind closed doors, without stakeholder involvement, and late in the day.
Of much greater concern is that the GAC has recommended that 14 new gTLD applications, which coincide with geographical terms, should not proceed beyond Initial Evaluation. On 7 June 2013, the ICANN Board New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) accepted this advice, which affects several new gTLD brand owner applications for registered trademarks such as .patagonia.
Is it right that the GAC, or individual governments within the GAC, can veto new gTLD applications that have met the published requirements in the community-agreed, new gTLD Applicant Guidebook, which was developed over five years? Are individual, national governments the best arbiters of morality and public order on the global internet? Should national or local political interests in an applied-for string that has a geographical association be permitted to trump legitimate global intellectual property rights? These are tough questions to answer with far reaching consequences for future application rounds. It is likely that this debate will continue long after the ICANN meeting in Durban, South Africa, 14-18 July. What is at stake is ICANN’s multi-stakeholder model of internet governance, which balances government, private sector, individual and civil society needs.
Valideus, Com Laude’s sister company, offers new gTLD consulting services for ICANN’s new gTLD process. It is currently managing 5% of all new gTLD applications for clients from a diverse range of industry sectors, including global leaders in e-commerce, banking, consultancy, food, insurance, media, software and telecoms.
