IP: Civil liberties groups launch e-democracy, ICANN project

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

BTW I agree with Declans comments DJF

>Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 11:43:36 -0400
>From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
>
>[The problem with ICANN, or at least one of the problems, is not that the 
>corporation has taken over "privatized" government functions. The problem 
>is that the functions are not privatized enough. With ICANN, you have an 
>inherently unhealthy situation: A private company that's under the thumb 
>of government regulators, without the open-government and due-process 
>protections you'd have if it were a true government agency. --Declan]
>
>*********
>
>Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 11:22:54 -0400
>To: declan@well.com
>From: Barry Steinhardt <Barrys@aclu.org>
>Subject: New Internet Democracy Project
>
>Declan,
>
>
>I thought you would be interested in this release announcing the creation 
>of the new Internet Democracy Project which is designed to marshal the 
>forces of non-governmental organizations to work on establishing civil 
>society principles for Internet governance bodies like ICANN.
>
>Barry Steinhardt
>
>
>
>
>Warning of Thorny Online Issues Ahead,
>Cyber-Rights Groups Form Internet Democracy Project
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Amy Weil, ACLU, (212) 549-2561 or 2666
>Thursday, July 6, 2000 Andrew Shen, EPIC, (202) 483-1140 / shen@epic.org
>
>NEW YORK -- Seeking to strengthen civil society online, the American Civil 
>Liberties
>Union (ACLU), Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) and the
>Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) joined together today to 
>launch the
>Internet Democracy Project.
>"The goals of the Internet Democracy Project are to encourage participation by
>non-governmental organizations in Internet governance and to promote the 
>principles
>of a civil society," said Hans Klein Chair of CPSR.
>As the unique medium of the Internet develops, Klein noted, key governance
>decisions about central resources and operations are being made by
>quasi-governmental agencies, such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned 
>Names and
>Numbers, known as ICANN.
>ICANN is a new global organization originally chartered by the United States
>Government to administer the Internet addresses and the Domain Name System 
>which
>govern what a Internet site can be called and how it can be found.
>"There is real need to focus the attention of civil society on the seemingly
>technical issues that organizations like ICANN are addressing," said Barry
>Steinhardt Associate Director of the ACLU. "If our voices are not heard 
>while the
>governance structures are being created it may be too late," he added.
>Increasingly, ICANN has been setting policies on issues that will have a
>significant impact on the free expression and privacy rights of Internet 
>users for
>example by crafting policies that favor commercial interests over those of
>non-commercial speakers.
>As one of its first priorities, the Project will sponsor a forum on "Civil 
>Society
>and the ICANN Elections" on July 13 in Yokohama, Japan. Yokohama is the 
>site of the
>next ICANN board meeting and related meetings. The forum will feature 
>speakers from
>around the globe and will include discussion of principles by which the 
>Internet
>should be governed.
>In addition to its work on ICANN, the Internet Democracy Project will also 
>look at
>the impact of other Internet governance structure on civil society.
>"ICANN may be the most prominent organization in some corners of the 
>globe, but it
>is hardly the only group that will affect the future of the Internet," 
>said Marc
>Rotenberg, Executive Director of EPIC. "Our work will be broader and we will
>encourage the participation of the Public Voice at every opportunity," 
>continued
>Rotenberg.
>The Project's upcoming agenda will include:
>^Õ Statement of Principles -- Developing support for a statement on "Civil 
>Society
>and ICANN Elections," which is to be discussed in Yokohama. The Internet 
>Democracy
>Project will continue to seek support for the statement that speaks to the 
>need for
>transparent and representative governance, a balanced approach for 
>intellectual
>property protection, the need to ensure minimal and equitable costs for domain
>registration, and other key issues for the management of ICANN.
>^Õ Informational Clearinghouse -- The Internet Democracy Project will 
>promote public
>education about Internet governance and encourage public participation in 
>Internet
>policymaking. IDP will publish a newsletter, establish a web site
>(www.internetdemocracy.net), and produce a sourcebook on Internet 
>governance issues.
>^Õ ICANN Election Resource -- The Project will serve as a non-partisan 
>educational
>resource for voters in the upcoming election of At Large members of the 
>Board of the
>ICANN. The Project will also foster dialogue among voters and ICANN's 
>current and
>potential Board members about important public policy issues. The Project 
>will ask
>the candidates to express their position on civil society issues and 
>widely publish
>their answers.
>The Internet Democracy Project is non-partisan and will neither support 
>nor oppose
>the election of any candidates.
>The Internet Democracy Project is online at www.internetdemocracyproject.org.
>
>-end-