Your comments are most welcome

Alex Gakuru gakuru at GMAIL.COM
Sun Nov 8 20:40:57 CET 2009


Hi Bill,

It would be an honour for my committee to arrange one such!

best,

Alex


On Sun, Nov 8, 2009 at 10:38 PM, William Drake
<william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch> wrote:
> Hi Alex,
>
> Looks interesting. Perhaps something similar with Kenyan CS plus
> international colleagues could be organized for before the ICANN meeting?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bill
>
>
>
> On Nov 8, 2009, at 7:24 PM, Alex Gakuru wrote:
>
>> Dear Konstantinos,
>>
>> Your below comments were very useful. Our team of lawyers have taken
>> note of them.
>>
>> thanks much.
>>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> As I mentioned to some colleagues at Seoul, next week we are hosting
>> http://ict4all.or.ke/
>>
>> Para. 2 home page - content being collaboratively developed by the
>> Civil Society organizing committee accuses absent broad stakeholders
>> (especially Rights) organisations on local and international ICT
>> agenda-setting. .
>>
>> While the thrust of the convening is a focus on draft regulations, we
>> shall have other topics, such as, IPv6, community networks,   and
>> Civil Society participation at ICANN and IGF are on our agenda. We'd
>> appreciate the Chair's Constituency message that can be publish at our
>> brand new webpage (just got published this morning).
>>
>> Wish us well?
>>
>> best wishes,
>>
>>
>> Alex
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 12:36 PM, Konstantinos Komaitis
>> <k.komaitis at strath.ac.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear Alex,
>>>
>>> You have certainly every reason to be worrying about paragraph 20 of the
>>> Regulations - but I would extend this worry to the whole section.
>>> According
>>> to its wording, Registrars are legitimized to proceed to content-related
>>> and
>>> apply any other subjective criteria until they manage to 'satisfy
>>> themselves
>>> that the name so submitted". This is very dangerous. It gives an
>>> unprecedented level of discretion to registrars to proceed to evaluations
>>> that fall completely outside their scope. the system can be gamed and
>>> abused
>>> easily, mainly by trademark owners but not only. Registrars are not
>>> authorized legal agents and they should not act accordingly. Especially
>>> since the regulation imposes such harsh penalties, leaving such wide
>>> discretion to registrars endangers the whole idea behind registering
>>> domain
>>> names (innovation, entrepreneurship, etc). In what capacity will
>>> registrars
>>> operate and what criteria will they apply in determining "contrary to the
>>> law" and " does not infringe the rights of third parties"?
>>>
>>> Finally, the registrar is given too much power being able to revoke the
>>> name
>>> at any time and I also find a, b, c, and d highly vague and problematic.
>>> Only courts or an ADR is system - if is applicable and legitimate - can
>>> determine these issues. Not registrars, which they only perform technical
>>> management of the domain names. imagine for instance what would happen if
>>> NSI were to determine whether a domain name is contrary to the law or
>>> infringes the rights of third parties. it would be dangerous and would
>>> create legal upheaval.
>>>
>>> Hope this helps.
>>>
>>> KK
>>>
>>>
>>> On 12/10/2009 20:09, "Alex Gakuru" <gakuru at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Colleagues,
>>>>
>>>> Below is an excerpt from our draft regulations. I am uncomfortable
>>>> with 20 (1) c. "does not infringe the rights of third parties;"  which
>>>> I find very generic and prone to abuse by Intellectual Property
>>>> 'domain name rights' holders compared to "first come first served
>>>> domain name registrations tradition.  Furthermore this would imply
>>>> imprisonments for such registrars in view of 25 (1) and (2).
>>>>
>>>> Would you kindly care to comment for our legal team to take note on
>>>> our comments to be submitted soon?
>>>>
>>>> regards,
>>>>
>>>> Alex
>>>>
>>>> ----snip---
>>>>
>>>>                      20.   1) Registrars shall, before registering
>>>> any domain name,
>>>> Obligations of              satisfy themselves that the name so
>>>> submitted:
>>>> Registrars                   a. complies with the guidelines issued
>>>> pursuant
>>>> to
>>>>                                       regulation 18;
>>>>                                   b. is not contrary to the law;
>>>>                                   c. does not infringe the rights of
>>>> third parties;
>>>>                                   d. does not improperly give the
>>>> impression
>>>> of
>>>>                                       pertaining to public
>>>> administration or the exercise
>>>>                                       of public powers
>>>>                           2) The Registrant shall be the holder of
>>>> the registered
>>>>                               domain name; provided that the
>>>> Registrar reserves the
>>>>                               right to recall the registered domain
>>>> name if it is
>>>>                               established that the registration was
>>>> contrary to these
>>>>                               Regulations.
>>>>
>>>>                   21. Liability for the infringement of third party
>>>> rights and interest
>>>> Limitation of       arising from holding or using a domain name shall
>>>> be borne by
>>>> Liability              the Registrant.
>>>>
>>>>                  PART IV:MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
>>>>
>>>>                   25.
>>>> Offences and           (1) Any licensee who contravenes the provisions
>>>> of this
>>>> Penalties              Regulation commits an offence.
>>>>
>>>>                       (2) Any person who commits an offence under these
>>>>                       Regulations shall be liable on conviction to a
>>>> fine not exceeding
>>>>                       three hundred thousand shillings or to
>>>> imprisonment for a term
>>>>                       not exceeding three years or both.
>>>>
>>>> <http://www.cck.go.ke/UserFiles/File/E-transactions%20draft%202%20fair%20draft
>>>> .pdf>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dr. Konstantinos Komaitis,
>>> Lecturer in Law,
>>> GigaNet Membership Chair,
>>> University of Strathclyde,
>>> The Lord Hope Building,
>>> 141 St. James Road,
>>> Glasgow, G4 0LT,
>>> UK
>>> tel: +44 (0)141 548 4306
>>> email: k.komaitis at strath.ac.uk
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
> ***********************************************************
> William J. Drake
> Senior Associate
> Centre for International Governance
> Graduate Institute of International and
>  Development Studies
> Geneva, Switzerland
> william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
> www.graduateinstitute.ch/cig/drake.html
> ***********************************************************
>
>
>


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