[ga] GA-sys outreach to GA members

[Joanna Lane <jo-uk@rcn.com>]

As you may know, with respect to WHOIS, the ga-sys list has been relatively
active, but so far focused mainly on EU and US Privacy issues. If the
internet community, through DNSO is to give policy advice to anybody on the
issue of privacy, steps should be taken to obtain a proper overview, for
each to know the current situation surrounding *all* countries, independent
of any "experts" within GA ranks, who may or may not be advocating partisan
views in a "last man standing in their country" type of scenario.

In order to provide meaningful input, it is necessary to be more inclusive
worldwide in terms of numbers participating. To that end, I suggest the GA
as a whole could engage in an outreach policy of collating externally
produced data that laready exists, posting URLs to the DNSO public archive.

We should be referring regularly not only to national government on-line
archives, but also to report recommendations made by local, reputable,
community organizations and industry leaders - a simple, if fairly
time-consuming research task, which I am suggesting is vital to these lists
while GA members grow to more substantial numbers.

There is no shortage of data available on-line through the search engines,
but at 5 posts a day, this would take one person approximately 10 days just
to file one report per country on one topic (assuming no personal comments
or updates from the poster at all), and therefore, it's not really a
practical exercise for one person to undertake unpaid and advocate personal
positions at the same time. This should be a community effort, for those who
do not have positions to advocate, or are willing to set those aside for a
short period of time, hence I post this to the GA main list as the most
viable window of opportunity.


Regarding Privacy and WHOIS, if members of the GA would please advise
positions with respect to their own territories, and to post relevant URLs
to the ga-sys list, any documents that may arrive in foreign language could
be translated if the situation presents itself, or summarized by the member
in English alongside the original, but the sooner we receive a few foreign
language documents, the sooner ICANN will be forced to translate them.

The example I cite below, SOUTH AFRICA, is a country without legislation on
key issues apparently, a fact that I did not know until I looked it up, and
important to know when balancing the requirement for industry
self-regulation vs. government legislation in a Worldwide situation.

In deference to the Alt Chair's request to keep topics on specific lists, I
respectfully request that general replies about GA outreach in general be
addressed to the GA-list and that Privacy/ WHOIS specific replies be
addressed to the ga-sys list.


Regards,
Joanna

http://196.30.226.221/office/kpmg/0103261206.htm

KPMG, ECASA release E-Commerce Green Paper response

[Johannesburg, 26 March 2001] - KPMG and the E-Commerce Association of South
Africa (ECASA) have released the joint industry comment on the E-Commerce
Green Paper ­ the result of a number of workshops and information sessions
run in collaboration since the Green Paper's release in November last year.

The document discusses several issues that are key to the e-commerce
legislation, not the least of which is the view that unless e-commerce
legislation is addressed urgently, e-commerce in SA will be inhibited and
the lack of legal certainty will act as deterrent to trade with and
investment in the country.

This is the view of South African business representatives who participated
in the KPMG and the ECASA E-Commerce Green Paper workshops.

"It is clear that SA needs e-commerce legislation desperately. However,
until such time, business will need to take a self-regulatory approach and
manage the legal risk which is a result of the uncertainty in our existing
law," says Mark Heyink, head of KPMG e-business legal risk management.

"It is not unsurprising that the golden thread throughout the discussions is
the need to ensure that South African law is in line with international
developments. The urgent need for privacy legislation is an example of where
it is imperative that international privacy principles and in particular,
the European Union's directive on privacy are followed. In contrast, the law
on trademarks which has been based on international convention, is in line
with international trends," adds Heyink.

Representatives from commerce and industry, academia, government, service
providers, the legal and accounting professions, and representative industry
bodies, attended the KPMG/ECASA workshops, and examined the increased
importance of intellectual property and its role in the new economy.

______________________________________________________________________

 

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