NYC LOCAL: Monday 13 July 2009 ICANN Meeting on Proposed Englobulation of Domain Names

[secretary]

On Monday 13 July 2009 ICANN will meet in the Hudson Theatre of
the Millennium Hotel at 145 West 45th Street on the Island of the
Manahattoes.

The Hudson Theatre is a serious theatre:

http://www.millenniumhotels.com/millenniumnewyork/other/index.html

and ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers,
have use of this theatre all day Monday 13 July 2009.

ICANN has called this meeting in order to be able to claim that
ICANN has consulted with the public on a proposed New World Order
of Domain Names.  Under the new order, if you or I or PETA or the
Green Party, or the Ranters and Gun Owners Association, or
NYLUG-SOCIAL, were to apply for a domain name, first a new arm of
ICANN, an arm chartered to act in the interests of some hundred
large world wide corporations, would have to vet your proposed
new domain name.  If this new agency of ICANN disapproves your
name, then you would have to, right off the bat, pay $20,000 in
American money, to hire a lawyer to fight ICANN.  ICANN would run
a new trans-national para-legal court in which the case would be
heard.  The court would formally be a creature of the hundred
large companies.

Of course, the Englobulators have made sure that no public notice
of this event has been made.  Have you seen notice on Slashdot?
In the New York Times?  No.  But well paid lobbyists and
spokesmodels for the Englobulators have been hired to attend this
meeting.  They will come in force, and they will be armed with
slides, and sheaves of paper, on which will be written their best
arguments for you giving up your right to the domain name of your
choice.

What can we do to stop this extraordinary attempt to subvert
traditional trademark law?  We can show up at the Hudson Theatre
on Monday and ask why these hundred companies are formally
created a special class within the New World Order of Domain Names.

Please register to attend this supposedly public ICANN meeting.
The registration deadline is tomorrow 10 July 2009:

http://www.registration123.com/ICANN/GTLD/

Please read the Report of the Englobulators on a New World Order
of Domain Names, called the IRT Final Report on Trademark
Protection:

http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-4-29may09-en.htm

(See pages 15 and 16 in the pdf of the report for a presentation
of the special status to be accorded the Hundred Corporations.
The Hundred Corporations are those named in the "Globally
Protected Marks List".)


Here is further information:

ICANN Announcement on Events:
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-12jun09-en.htm

Public Comment on Final IRT Report:
http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-final-report/

Public Comment on Draft IRT Report:
http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-draft-report/

Here are three collocations of arguments against the New Domain
Name System:

IP Justice Comments: 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-final-report/msg00210.html

EFF Australia Comments: 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-final-report/msg00179.html

Comments from Kathy Kleiman:
http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-draft-report/msg00068.html


Below my signature are two notices about this meeting, one by
Seth Johnson, and one by Kathy Kleiman, of the Noncommercial
Users Constituency:

http://icann-ncuc.ning.com

Kathy alerted Seth and me to this meeting.  Kathy is point in the
fight against this large attempt on the traditional system of
trademark and on our ancient right of free naming on the Net.
Please write to Kathy Kleiman if you would like to meet with her
and other partisans on Sunday 12 July 2009 in New York City, or
early on Monday 13 July 2009:

kathy@kathykleiman.com

We hope you will come to the Hudson Theatre on Monday 13 July
2009 and help defeat the Englobulators.

Jay Sulzberger <secretary@lxny.org>
Corresponding Secretary LXNY
LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization.
http://www.lxny.org


<blockquote
  what="notice by Seth Johnson"
  edits="one typo repaired">

 Date: Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:07:51 -0400
 From: Seth Johnson <seth.johnson@RealMeasures.dyndns.org>
 Reply-To: seth.johnson@RealMeasures.dyndns.org
 Organization: Real Measures
 To: discuss@freeculture.org, Kathy@KathyKleiman.com
 Subject: NY FC Fighters Needed -- Stand Against Trademark Abuse at ICANN

 Hi folks, this is you.  We *need to get to this hearing, the New York
 phase of a rapid series of meetings around the world by ICANN.  Please
 see the blurb below.  You MUST REGISTER by TOMORROW.  It's at the
 Millennium Hotel this Monday.

 (Others in other cities, get ready)

 This is the rollout for the new Global Top Level Domains.  It's the
 supposed public input phase.  But it's also about putting in place a
 massive, global change in trademark policy.

 Get this -- the group that put this plan together (the "Implementation
 Recommendation Team" or IRT) has already closed shop before initiating
 these meetings -- so what's the point?

 Domain names don't match up with trademark law -- DNS is about giving
 symbols one universal address.  Language is not.  You don't trademark
 "Apple" -- you reserve the use of that trademark to market a
 particular kind of goods or service.  Thus we have Apple Computers and
 The Beatles' Apple music company.  Or Sun Oil in Canada, a completely
 separate company from Sun Oil in America -- and certainly not the same
 as the Sun computing company.  There's also fair use -- and of course
 free speech.

 The MPAA and International Trademark have had a hand in ICANN
 from its inception, when they required the Uniform Dispute
 Resolution Policy.  Now, along with rolling out new global Top
 Level Domains, trademark owners are ramming through a new process
 that goes well beyond that.  They are pulling out the stops to
 get ICANN to implement what will in practical terms amount to a
 huge revision in the nature of trademark, backed by strong
 practical action.  Along with a new "Uniform Rapid Suspension
 System" to shut down sites quickly, they are establishing ICANN
 as playing the role of policing trademarks -- which by law is the
 trademark holders' responsibility.

 The thing to remember is that while domain names and trademarks
 might be hard to get a hold of politically, this sets a huge
 precedent that will change trademark beyond that area.  So we
 call them on their process.

 (Among other things, this will mean no more Yes Men.  :-) )

 Kathy Kleiman of the ICANN "Noncommercial Users Constituency"
 will be able to brief you more fully.  She can also explain what
 went down in the previous discussions, where they've essentially
 ignored all the substantive points she presented.  It's up to us
 to come in in numbers and say we got their number.

 See below blurb from Kathy.


 Seth
  
</blockquote>


<blockquote
  what="notice by Kathy Kleiman"
  edits="some re-formatting">

 ICANN Public Consultation: Should New Top Level Domains Include Broad
 New Trademark Protections?


 On Mon, July 13, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
 Numbers (ICANN) will hold a public consultation at the Hudson
 Theatre,  Millennium Hotel, 145 West 44th Street, to discuss the
 "rules of the  road" for new generic top level domains (gTLDs), future
 competitors to  .COM, .ORG and .NET.


 A group of trademark attorneys, representing large brand owners, in
 May wrote a report calling on ICANN to create broad new trademark
 protections before opening up new gTLDs.

    A. IP Clearinghouse: a massive database of registered and 
       unregistered trademark rights created by ICANN (IRT 
       Report, pp. 12-16

    B. Globally Protected Marks List: a list of global marks 
       created and maintained by ICANN (IRT Report, pp. 16-
       22)

    C. Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS): A ultra-fast 
       takedown service with little notice or time to respond 
       by domain name registrants (IRT, pp. 25-37)

 These proposals have been criticized as outside the mission and scope
 of ICANN, a technical body, and outside the protections and limits
 of trademark law. ICANN's Noncommercial Users Constituency writes "We
 fear the impact of the IRT Proposals on free speech and fair use
 online.  Trademark owners don't own strings of letters, they have a
 trademark for  specific goods and services. Basic words like APPLE,
 TIDE, SUN and TIME belong to all of us. Many important domain names
 will be lost, or worse,  blocked before they can be registered." 

 Approval of the IRT Report is being rushed through ICANN with minimal 
 opportunity to comment. It is vital that ICANN hear comment as soon
 as  possible, and Monday is an opportunity to speak. 

 ICANN's Noncommercial Users Constituency will be hosting a
 breakfast at the Millennium Hotel on Monday morning.  Please
 contact NCUC Co-Founder Kathy Kleiman,

 kathy@kathykleiman.com

 for more details.


 Registration to speak on 7/13 at this link (deadline 7/10):

 http://www.registration123.com/ICANN/GTLD/


 IRT Report: 
 http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-4-29may09-en.htm

 IP Justice Comments: 
 http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-final-report/msg00210.html

 EFF Australia Comments: 
 http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-final-report/msg00179.html

 Noncommercial Users Constituency Website with comments: 
 http://icann-ncuc.ning.com/
  
</blockquote>