Defunding ITU? Plenipotentiary: Member States Decrease Financial Contributions

Anthony Rutkowski, Principal, Netmagic Associates LLC writes an analytical article on CircleID on member states dropping their contributions to the ITU The ongoing ITU Plenipotentiary Conference wraps up at the end of the week. The more than 2000 people present in Busan Korea from 171 countries — overwhelmingly government bureaucrats — have been busily polishing …

Thousands of Hungarians revolt against Internet tax

(Reuters) – Thousands of Hungarians protested in Budapest on Sunday against a planned new tax on Internet data transfers, which they said would not only increase the tax burden but would also curb fundamental democratic rights and freedoms. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government, which has been widely accused of adopting anti-democratic policies, first unveiled plans …

ICANN is not the Internet, U.S. Ambassador Daniel Sepulveda

Multistakeholder Governance at Stake The official U.S. Internet policy calls for preserving a free and open Internet under a global multistakeholder community encompassing Web registries, website owners, and nonprofit organizations. To that end, the U.S. Department of Commerce is working on an overhaul of the current system of allocating domain names through an advisory group …

TheRegister: In the next four weeks, 100 people will decide the future of the internet

On February 8, 2000, the US government signed a contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to run the so-called “IANA functions” – which glue together the internet as we know it. Ever since that day, people have been trying to end that contract. This time next year, it will finally …

ITU agrees to open access for Plenipot contributions

Good news! As the ITU’s Plenipot Conference gets underway in Busan, Korea, the heads of delegation have met and decided to open up access to some of the documents associated with the meeting. At this time, it is only the documents that are classified as “contributions“—other documents such as meeting agendas, background information, and terms …

.SCOT: Scotland’s Internet Identity in the Face of Independence

Scotland’s vote for independence this Thursday brings with it a stack of issues to consider, including the potentially sovereign nation’s currency, economic stability, budget deficits, taxes and involvement in the European Union. But Scotland also faces another kind of fight: a digital one, involving its country code TLD. If Scotland decides to leave the United …