UPDATES:
August 1-2: ICANN's EPDP Team got off to a rocky start at its first meeting on August 1st, both in process and substance. "Dysfunctional" may be the best adjective to describe the working group process trying to deal with the ICANN Temporary Spec developed by ICANN's incompetent management team and approved by the inept ICANN Board right before the European Union's GDPR became enforceable on May 25, 2018. Meeting slides, transcript, and the chat transcript are embed below. Adobe recording here and MP3 here. Three takeaways (emphasis added):
- Milton Mueller (NCSG):"The main point Alan is that supermajority is defined. In the ePDP it is not. That is dangerous - leaves room for arbitrary decisions that consensus exists when it does not."
- Milton Mueller (NCSG): "Ashley - a unified access model based on ICANN is NOT part of the temp spec. The temp spec says that registrars will provide access on request. In that sense, we already have access."
- Kristina Rosette (RySG - Amazon Registry): "If staff isn't already planning to circulate a meeting summary that includes decisions taken (if any) and clear action items, I'd be really appreciative of such a summary. My notes are not at all clear."
Meeting (Aug 1, 2018) slides
Meeting transcript:
Chat transcript:
July 31: ICANN Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) re: GDPR & WHOIS: EPDP Team first meeting Wednesday, August 1, 14:00 UTC. Non-members of the EPDP Team, observers and alternates not replacing members, may observe (listen) via live audio cast:
- in browser: http://stream.icann.org:8000/stream01
- an application such as iTunes: http://stream.icann.org:8000/stream01.m3u), or
- to the recording (or read the transcript) following the meeting (link on the GNSO Calendar and Team wiki).
Editor's note: many of the links in the embed above do not work due to ICANN staff or the EPDP Chair not knowing how to properly format a PDF with active links. Many of the documents are available here.
EPDP mail list here is now being filled with each EPDP member submitting a short bio. List of all EPDP Team members, alternates, and observers is on the wiki here.
Original Post:
1) More ICANN Mismanagement: 18 Jul 2018 Letter from Dean Marks and Steve Metalitz to Akram Atallah, Cyrus Namazi, Göran Marby, and Cherine Chalaby (pdf) re: Privacy/Proxy Consensus Policy implementation, excerpt (highlighting added):
"Please let us know what steps you are taking to expedite any remaining legal review or formatting issues to incorporate general provisions of the Temporary Specification so that the comprehensive implementation documents developed by the IRT over more than a year of intensive IRT efforts can be finalized. A failure of ICANN to timely implement a multi-stakeholder policy, especially in a post-IANA transition world, seriously undermines ICANN’s credibility, and calls into question this form of governance. We stand ready to assist in the successful conclusion of the implementation process of the policy the board approved almost two years ago. And we believe doing so is in the best interest of ICANN and all of its stakeholders."More info on Privacy / Proxy here and here.
2) Other ICANN News
 |
| ICANN's GDPR Train Wreck |
ICANN President & CEO Goran Marby, July 27, 2018: "We aim to prepare another iteration of a potential unified access model to gain as much clarity as possible on the GDPR's application to how non-public registration data may be accessed and used. An updated model will be posted in August." (emphasis added)
a. Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Update--first EPDP Team meeting 1 Aug 2018 at 14:00 UTC (10:00am EDT in the US) re: EPDP on the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data. EPDP Team meetings, recordings, transcripts, scheduled conference calls are posted on the GNSO Master Calendar; non-member observers can listen in on meetings via audio cast. More info at EPDP Team wiki. List of EPDP Team members, alternates, and observers is on the wiki here. Here's the link to the EPDP Team mailing list.
Also note:
• A committee of the government of India has published a draft data protection law that recommends a data protection authority, right to be forgotten, data localisation, and more--thequint.com:
"The committee recommends that processing (collection, recording, analysis, disclosure, etc) of personal data should be done only for “clear, specific and lawful” purposes. Only that data which is necessary for such processing is to be collected from anyone."
• The U.S. Government Is Coming to the Incompetent ICANN Management Team's Rescue--Remarks of the U.S. Department of Commerce Assistant Secretary Redl at IGF-USA 2018 (Redl is also NTIA Administrator):
"... The most pressing issue facing ICANN right now is updating the WHOIS service in light of the European General Data Protection Regulation, or “GDPR.” The WHOIS is a service that, prior the GDPR’s effective date in May, provided public access to domain name registration information, including contact information for the entity or person registering the domain name ... Unfortunately, European authorities have indicated that the collection and public provision of domain name registration data violates the GDPR. Because of this, as of late May, domain name registries and registrars have stopped providing important domain name registration information contained in the WHOIS. This is an unmitigated victory for the spammers and scammers that plague consumers and businesses. NTIA and the highest levels of the U.S. government are engaging with the European Data Protection Board, the European Commission, and European Member States to provide clarity and guidance to the community as it works to facilitate access and accreditation to WHOIS information, which is now private. This access mechanism is critical to meeting the needs of law enforcement, cybersecurity, and rights protection. NTIA will take a lead role in the process to develop this access mechanism and will fight hard for the important governmental and commercial equities in the WHOIS service ..." (emphasis added)Editor's note: at least NTIA (unlike ICANN) is competent enough to understand the real issue is not the unnecessary and superfluous administrative and technical contact data (only the contact data for the legal entity or person registering the domain name is necessary), but instead the real issue is, and has always been, access and accreditation, which is where the ICANN management team should have been focused starting in May 2016, 20 days after the GDPR was published.
See also: Submission of GNSO Council Review of the Panama City GAC Communiqué (pdf).
b. Post-ICANN62 Policy Report (pdf) embed below:
03 Letter from David Olive
SUPPORTING ORGANIZATION/ADVISORY COMMITTEE UPDATES
04 Address Supporting Organization (ASO)
05 Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO)
08 Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)
12 At-Large/At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC)
15 Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)
17 Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC)
18 Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)
Editor's Note: ICANN63, Barcelona, Spain, is Oct 20-25, 2018, only 83 days from now (July 29, 2018).
c. Temp Spec Non-Compliance? "At this point, Facebook, Inc. is providing ICANN with this information to inform ICANN’s compliance processes, rather than serving as an official complaint against the registrars specified in the attached materials. As a result, it is not authorizing the forwarding of any complaint, attachments, requests or other documentation to the registrars of record"--excerpt from Letter to ICANN Compliance Jul 13, 2018 (pdf).
d. GNSO Council Response (pdf) to the ICANN Board Resolution on the SSAC Advisory on the Use of Emoji in Domain Names (SAC095), excerpt: "the Council feels that the combination of the IDN related requirements contained in the Applicant Guidebook, RA, and RAA effectively prevent the introduction of emoji at the top or any level."
3) Names, Domains & Trademarks
b. GDPR & Trademarks: GDPR brings new challenges for brand protection | boyesturner.com: The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into force on 25 May 2018 has brought significant new challenges for brand owners, in terms of their ability to enforce trade mark rights ... GDPR has caused a conflict between the contractual requirements of ICANN to collect and make certain personal data publicly available and the obligations of GDPR to protect personal data ..." (emphasis added)
4) ICYMI Internet Domain News
- India--Meet the father of India’s fight for internet freedom--pingie.com.
- India--Internet Shutdowns: 2018 the Worst Year Already, Reveals RTI--thequint.com.
- China--Blockchain Is Helping to Circumvent Censorship in China--slate.com.
- Vietnam’s New Cybersecurity Law and Push for Internet Sovereignty Reduces Freedom--pogowasright.org.
- Facebook Confirms It's Working On A New Internet Satellite--wired.com
5) Most Read Posts this past week on DomainMondo.com:
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-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo