KEEP THE CORE NEUTRAL - 27 June: Civil Society Workshop on Freedom of Expression and Domain Name Policy

[Robin Gross]

Civil Society Workshop on Freedom of Expression and Domain Name Policy:
"KEEP THE CORE NEUTRAL"

Wednesday 27 June 2007 (13:00 - 15:30)
at the ICANN Board Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico
in the San Geronimo Ballroom

Civil society’s "Keep the Core Neutral" workshop will explore freedom of 
expression issues in the policy development process to introduce new 
generic top-level domains (gtlds).

As the ICANN community debates policy options to allow new top-level 
domains, it must consider important issues that impact what ideas may be 
expressed in a domain name. The NCUC/ALAC workshop aims to provide a 
public discussion point in the ICANN policy development process for new 
top-level domains.

The workshop will address new gtld policy issues such as:

* should ICANN remain 'content neutral' in national policy debates when 
evaluating applications for domains?
* how can ICANN protect freedom of expression rights in domain name policy?
* what is the proper role for governments in approving or rejecting 
top-level domains?
* what is the appropriate balance between trademarks and free expression 
rights in domain names?
* who should decide which ideas are too controversial to be allowed in a 
top-level domain?
* how to balance competing rights to use the same words in domain names?
* should trademark owners be given prior registration privileges before 
other rights holders?
* should a controversial domain name be rejected or delayed?

Workshop Speakers:

* Joichi Ito, ICANN board member and Creative Commons board member
* Christine Haight Farley, Law professor at American University
* Michael Palage, Attorney and ex-board member of ICANN
* Milton Mueller, Chairman of ICANN’s Non-Commercial Users Constituency, 
professor at Syracuse University and founding partner of Internet 
Governance Project
* Wendy Seltzer, Visiting professor at Northeastern University Law 
School and Fellow at Harvard Law’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society
* Wolfgang Kleinwaechter, Professor at University of Aarhus
* Tan Tin Wee, Professor at National University of Singapore
* Ram Mohan, Vice President of Business Operations and Chief Technology 
Officer at Afilias Limited
* Moderator: Robin Gross, IP Justice Executive Director

"Keep the Core Neutral" workshop is organized by ICANN’s Non-Commercial 
Users Constituency (NCUC) and the At-Large-Advisory Committee (ALAC)

The workshop will be webcast live from ICANN's website and a video of 
the workshop will be posted to
http://www.ipjustice.org

Webpage for the workshop:
http://www.ipjustice.org/wp/2007/06/12/06272007workhsop/


More Info:

ICANN San Juan Board Meeting:
http://sanjuan2007.icann.org/

Non-Commercial User’s Constituency (NCUC):
http://www.ncdnhc.org/

At-Large-Advisory Committee (ALAC):
https://st.icann.org/alac/index.cgi?at_large_advisory_committee

IP Justice New gtld info page:
http://ipjustice.org/wp/campaigns/icann/gtlds/