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[ga] .nz Response to WG-A Report

Greetings

I am the Administraive contact for .nz and I have received advice that I should 
send you a copy of the .nz response to the WG-A report which was sent to 
Fay Howard on July 30. .nz trusts that you will give full weight to our position.

I attach the document in rich text format, plus the relevant html files.

Cordially

Sue Leader - Executive Director
ISOCNZ (Internet Society of New Zealand Inc)
Exe.Dir@isocnz.org.nz    Voice: +64-4-801-6256    http://www.isocnz.org.nz
Postal: Level 1, (e)-Vision Centre, 282 Wakefield St, Wellington
"ERROR 406: file corrupt: earth.config -- reboot universe? (Y/N)"


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.nz response to WGA report 0800999.rtf

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     File:  nzposition.html
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Title: NEW ZEALAND POSITION ON

NEW ZEALAND POSITION ON
THE WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANISATION
(WIPO) REPORT TO
THE INTERNET CORPORATION FOR
ASSIGNED NAMES AND NUMBERS (ICANN)
MAY 25 1999 BOARD MEETING
May 19, 1999

  1. STATEMENT FROM THE NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL SUMMIT ON INTERNET GOVERNANCE CHANGES

The Internet Society of New Zealand Inc held a "National Summit on Internet Governance Changes" on April 30 1999. The Summit was attended by a broad representation of the stakeholders in the development of the Internet in New Zealand, including business, academia, government, individuals and professional bodies. The Summit, representing the New Zealand Internet community, achieved a near unanimous consensus on the issues raised by the March Singapore meeting and subsequent events. The Summit stated:

"The New Zealand Internet community views with concern ICANN's move into policy creation before the establishment of membership structures and the ensuing democratic election of an internationally representative Board has taken place. We respectfully request that the Interim ICANN Board undertake no policy decisions, and rather finish the process for which they were appointed, namely the establishment of the requisite membership structures which can then elect the new Board. It is appropriate for that elected representative Board to move into policy approval based upon recommendations from the Constituency Organisations required by the Articles of Association.

"We oppose many of the WIPO recommendations, as outlined below, and oppose any of them being imposed upon ccTLD's. While there may be a need for a global disputes resolution process in some areas of the gTLD's, that is not the case for New Zealand, and it is the right of other ccTLD's to choose whether they utilise such a process. We believe that the need for such a process has been based on a US-centric model which does not necessarily reflect the situation in other countries.

"In particular we oppose any compulsory disputes arbitration process and the compulsory take-down of disputed domain names. Both proposals add costs to doing business on the Internet and increase market uncertainty. In a worst-case scenario smaller businesses or businesses in smaller ccTLD's would be at risk of bankruptcy caused by the process if challenged by larger businesses or businesses in larger countries or the multi-national arena.

"We also oppose the Registrar Accreditation Guidelines and accompanying contractual provisions being imposed on ccTLD's. We believe that these provisions will lessen competition, rather than enhance it, by making the stakes too high for smaller businesses and smaller countries.

"We call for ICANN to instead hold to the By-Laws under which it is legally incorporated, in particular Article VI, Section 2 (b) and Article VI-B, Section 1(a)(*1). Under these articles, the WIPO proposals and any recommendations from the GAC must be sent first to the DNSO for their advice. It is then up to the ICANN Board to follow that advice.

"New Zealand has a successful model which operates in a lightly-regulated environment. Our experience is that the low entry-barrier model with a "first come first serve" basis has demonstrated its worth. The New Zealand Courts have endorsed the approach (see http://www.domainz.net.nz/newsstand/) and find no jurisdictional problems with the very few cases which have come before them. In a judgement of the High Court of New Zealand dated 11 November 1998 the High Court said of Domainz' policy and conduct:

"I agree that there is no basis for pleading that Domainz committed some breach of a legal duty. It was not in any way party to conduct of a third defendant; on the contrary it has acted, as one would expect, honestly, efficiently, moderately and in conformity with its role as disinterested gatekeeper to the domain names system."

"The New Zealand Government will send representation to the ICANN Government Advisory Committee Meeting in Berlin.

"ISOCNZ has the confidence of the Internet community as represented at the Summit and the government of New Zealand (see http://www.moc.govt.nz/ran/itpg/internet/index.html) for the policy environment under which ".nz" is run. New Zealand has the sovereign right to determine how ".nz" is run and opposes any attempt by ICANN or it's advisors to intervene in our internal affairs."


*1 "ARTICLE VI:  SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS
Section 2:  RESPONSIBILITIES AND POWERS
(b)  The Supporting Organizations shall serve as advisory bodies to the Board, with the primary responsibility for developing and recommending substantive policies regarding those matters falling within their specific responsibilities..."

"ARTICLE VI-B:  THE DOMAIN NAME SUPPORTING ORGANIZATION
Section 1:  DESCRIPTION
(a)  The DNSO shall advise the Board with respect to policy issues relating to the Domain Name System..."
  1. BACKGROUND
  1. Involvement of the Internet Society of New Zealand Inc (ISOCNZ)
    2.

    The Internet Society of New Zealand is a not for profit, incorporated society. Its membership is open. Membership subscription costs NZ$50 per year. A full description of the principles of ISOCNZ may be obtained at its website at http://www.isocnz.org.nz.

    ISOCNZ has no affiliation or formal relationship with ISOC.

    ISOCNZ is responsible for management of the ".nz" ccTLD. It has contracted the management of this to its wholly owned for-profit company, the New Zealand Internet Registry Limited, which trades as Domainz.

    In line with that responsibility, ISOCNZ maintains a watching brief on all activities which may affect the fabric of the Internet. Where appropriate ISOCNZ makes extensive effort to take part in the international consultation processes whether by email, in person, or by written submission. Internal consultation is normally held with our own membership, but when the issues are of a broader and more profound impact, ISOCNZ consults with the New Zealand community as a whole. ISOCNZ regularly liaises with the New Zealand government on issues of import to the greater New Zealand community.

  2. ISOCNZ Responses to International Consultation Processes
  1. ISOCNZ monitored the formation of the IAHC and the MoU
  2. ISOCNZ monitored both the Green and White papers
  3. ISOCNZ made written comment on the Green and White papers

    4. (see - http://www.isocnz.org.nz/magaziner.htm)

  4. Domainz also made submissions to the Green Paper

    5. (see http://www.domainz.net.nz/newsstand/usgovt.html)

  5. ISOCNZ and Domainz were part of the Boston Working Group (BWG) submission to the US Government, late 1998. As the BWG submission was only one of two formal responses to the IANA draft that preceded formation of ICANN, NZ was involved in a number of audio conferences with Ira Magaziner and the US Dept of Commerce
  6. ISOCNZ and or Domainz attended three of the international meetings prior to establishment of ICANN
  7. ISOCNZ has, through Domainz, participated in the WIPO process, attending the Sydney meeting and presenting submissions in response to RFC-2

    8. (see:http://www.domainz.net.nz/newsstand/wipo2.html.).

  8. ISOCNZ made written submission on WIPO RFC-3

    9. (see http://www.isocnz.org.nz/WIPOresponse2.html)

    [The New Zealand Ministry of Commerce made comment to WIPO endorsing ISOCNZ’s submission.]

  9. ISOCNZ and Domainz attended March 1999 Singapore ICANN meeting
  10. ISOCNZ had representation at the April 1999 FICPI/AAPA meeting, Wellington, New Zealand
  11. ISOCNZ organised a New Zealand National Summit on the proposed changes to the governance of the Internet arising out of WIPO RFC-3 and the ICANN Singapore meeting
  1. National Summit on Internet Governance Changes

New Zealand has been monitoring the significant changes to the governance of the global Internet which have been underway since the publication of the American Government's Green and White Papers. ISOCNZ and The New Zealand Internet Registry Ltd (Domainz) were involved in the consultations processes which led to the formation of The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) outlined above This process has been ongoing since late 1998 and we shared world expectations that once the membership structures had been created and the representative boards, such as the Domain Name Supporting Organisation (DNSO), had been elected, the current small group of appointed Interim Directors would be replaced by freely elected representatives of the Internet Community. At that stage the future policy for the governance of the global Internet would be developed.

The March 4 meeting of ICANN in Singapore saw the ICANN Board start to move into policy-implementation mode. This, coupled with the results of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) "Requests for Comments" (RFC3) process, due to be presented at the ICANN meeting in Berlin in May, raised significant concerns within the New Zealand Internet community that New Zealand's right to determine how its own Domain Name System is administered may be removed or significantly altered. New Zealand was particularly concerned that ICANN appeared to be moving towards an uncritical adoption of the WIPO proposals which have significant implications for New Zealand in the realms of National Sovereignty, Ecommerce, and the Knowledge Economy.
  1. NATIONAL SUMMIT - APRIL 30 1999
  1. New Zealand Internet Community Concerns - WIPO RFC3
    1. ICANN entering into Policy creation before membership structures and democratically elected Boards are in place.
    2. Moderation of Domain Name Allocation – undue influence of Trade Mark/Intellectual Property concerns which are in direct conflict with New Zealand’s "first-come, first-served approach" now endorsed in New Zealand law
    3. gTLD name registration – Registrar Contracts directly with ICANN
    4. Increased regulatory regime for ccTLD’s – the "open" and "closed" proposals are highly regulated regimes and are counter to the New Zealand approach of deregulation and open markets.(1.2.4)
    5. ccTLD Registrar accreditation "guidelines" – unreasonable financial requirements would force many New Zealand companies out of the domain name registration business and place severe barriers to entry.
    6. Information transmission requirements – daily upload of registration records have impacts on privacy and conflict with NZ privacy laws
    7. Globalised disputes process and compulsory taken-down of disputed domain names
    8. The lack of New Zealand representation at the inaugural ICANN Government Advisory Committee (GAC) meeting in Singapore (because no invitation to the New Zealand Government arrived through the normal appropriate protocol channels)
  1. The Summit

ISOCNZ called an urgent National Summit when concerns about the ICANN process became apparent. The Summit was run in partnership with Ihug (The Internet Group) and Ernst & Young, the latter providing a Senior Manager as the Independent Chair for the Summit.

 
  1. The Summit had two functions - the first to raise awareness across all sectors of the Internet community about the implications of the proposed changes for the New Zealand ".nz" domain and the flow-on impacts for the future of the operation of the Internet within New Zealand. The second was to bring together a New Zealand position to take to the ICANN meeting in Berlin on May 25.
  2. In order for this consultation to take place a wide variety of interests needed to be represented at the Summit. To achieve this a range of measures were used to widely promote the Summit including:
  1. Attendees

The desired broad cross-sectorial representation at the Summit was achieved (see Appendix One). Fifty-five representatives from a number of government departments, top Internet Service providers, Web Design companies, educational institutions, law firms, and professional associations attended. In addition the Summit was audio-cast across the Internet with at least twenty-six streams in use at one time (total listeners unknown) and direct participation for listeners was enabled using email to the Summit.
  1. Outcomes from Summit

The National Summit achieved consensus on the key issues of concern to the New Zealand community. Participants in the break-out groups on Intellectual Property & the DNS, Policy & the DNS, and NZ Representation at ICANN brought back specific recommendations which are outlined below. The few dissenting points of view accepted the consensus when their issues were fully debated (also below).
    1. Break-out groups
    1. Intellectual Property and the DNS (Appendix Two)

R Bourne

Recorder


Feedback was received from a variety of members of the Internet community and now forms part of this final paper. Thank you for your input. A post-Berlin report will follow as soon as it can be done.

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© 1999 ISOCNZ, last reviewed 19/05/1999

 

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