The Shimkus Amendment to the $601 billion National Defense Authorization Act (HR 4435) passed the House of Representatives on May 22nd by a mostly partisan vote of 245–177. While all 228 Republicans present and voting supported the amendment only 17 Democrats voted “aye”, with 177 in opposition. Final passage on the entire bill was a …
Led by Senate Commerce Committee members Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), nine Republican senators have asked the chairman and ranking member of the committee to hold a hearing on the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s planned transition of some Internet domain name (ICANN) functions to a multistakeholder model. That came the same day that the …
Nine weeks have passed since the U.S. government announced its intention to transition stewardship of the IANA functions to the global community. This landmark announcement requires a measured, thoughtful approach for how we – the Internet community – will map a route to a successful transition. Together, we must pool our efforts with a goal …
Committee Worked to Include DOTCOM Act in Must-Pass Defense Authorization WASHINGTON, DC– The House of Representatives on May 22, 2014 voted to protect the future of the Internet by agreeing to Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-IL) amendment to the National Defense Authorization bill that mirrors language from the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) Act …
ICANN published last night the minutes of the New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) which following numerous GAC advice and voted down Amazon’s Application for .Amazon. Here is the resolution: “”Whereas, the GAC met during the ICANN 47 meeting in Durban and issued a Communiqué on 18 July 2013 (“Durban Communiqué”). Whereas, the GAC advised the …
In a developing story, the DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA) has won Round One in its case against ICANN for the “.africa” domain. The launch of the .africa TLD by the ZACR has therefore been delayed due to the ongoing Independent Review Process between ICANN and DotConnectAfrica (DCA) The win stems from the fact that DCA received …
[Media Release] [Additional Quotes] Discussions by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright & Related Rights (SCCR) broke down in the early hours of Saturday morning 3 May, after the European Union (EU) attempted to block future discussion of copyright laws to aid libraries and archives fulfill their missions in the digital …
ICANN accountability has come into question more than any other issue in the transitional discussions that led to the NETMundial conference. Under President Clinton in 1998, the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) entered into a contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to manage core functions of the …
ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade told members of its GNSO Council in Buenos Aires this morning that his recent initiatives resulting in the recent Montevideo Statement on Internet governance and the spring 2014 meeting on this subject to be held in Brazil were sanctioned by a September 15th ICANN Board resolution that has been withheld from …
Corwin: ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade passed secret resolutions, used NSA spy leaks as “false premise” to strip control from U.S. Philip Corwin, Founding principal of Virtualaw LLC, and ICANN watchdog for the Internet Commerce Association, spoke out recently at the 49th ICANN meeting. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is in charge of assigning …