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

[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-

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