ICANN is under attack for its proposal to introduce new gTLDs from an
unlikely source - the Obama administration. However it "has failed in
its bid to allow it and other governments to veto future top-level
domain names, a proposal before ICANN that raised questions about
balancing national sovereignty with the venerable Internet tradition of
free expression," reports CNET.
The CNET report notes that the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)
"rejected that part of the U.S. proposal last week, concluding instead
that governments can offer nonbinding 'advice' about controversial
suffixes such as .gay but will not receive actual veto power."
"Other portions of the U.S. proposal were adopted, including one
specifying that individual governments may file objections to proposed
suffixes without paying fees and another making it easier for trademark
holders to object. The final document, called a "scorecard," will be
discussed at a two-day meeting that starts today in Brussels."
While ICANN did not comment for the article, "Milton Mueller, a
professor of information studies at Syracuse University and author of a
recently published book on Internet governance, says an effort he
supported--complete with an online petition -- 'shamed' GAC
representatives 'into thinking about the free expression consequences'
of a governmental veto."
"When I started this campaign, I knew that the Department of Commerce
could never defend what they were doing publicly," Mueller told CNET.
"There are also potential constitutional issues."
To read this CNET report in full, see:
news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20037090-281.html
The GAC "scorecard" report is available at:
icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/gac-scorecard-23feb11-en.pdf
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