Policy & Regulation

Policy & Regulation / Most Commented

Are These the Last Days of Boys’ Club IT?

In the year 2016, 55 years after the human race launched a person into space; the women are still not earning the same wage as their male counterparts. In the UK, the gender pay gap was 19.7% in 2013, the last year we have the statistics for. This was 0.1 per cent worse than in 2012. In the US, women earn 79¢ for every dollar that men earn. As explained in this great article from Vox, the issue is much more complex than mere numbers. more

IANA Transition Confirmed: US Governement to Handover IANA Contract to ICANN at Midnight

United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas Galveston Division has denied plaintiffs motion for a temporary restraining order thus allowing IANA transition to proceed as planned. more

What Trump and Clinton Said About Cybersecurity in the First US Presidential Debate

The Internet and tech got very little mention last night during the first of three presidential debatest. The only notable exception was cybersecurity where moderator Lester Holt asked: "Our institutions are under cyber attack, and our secrets are being stolen. So my question is, who's behind it? And how do we fight it?" The following are the responses provided to the question by the two candidates. more

IANA Transition Must Move Forward, Says Google Senior VP and General Counsel

"Preserving a Free and Open Internet," is the title of a post published today by Kent Walker, Google's SVP and General Counsel. more

Observation from Seminar on IANA Function Stewardship Transition Held by CAICT

On August 16 of 2016, the US Government announced its intention to transit the stewardship of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) function to the multistakeholder community upon the expiration of the IANA function Contract as of October 1 of 2016, barring any significant impediment... This announcement attracts the close attention of Internet community around the world and also in China. more

IP Address Information Misused by Authorities Says EFF, Not Enough to Justify Police Raids

"Law Enforcement, Courts Need to Better Understand IP Addresses, Stop Misuse," says EFF in whitepaper released on Thursday. more

Domain Name Association Supports IANA Transition, Petitions Congress to Move Forward

I recently sent a letter to congressional leaders including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan; House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid expressing the Domain Name Association's support of the U.S. Administration's planned transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to the global multi-stakeholder community under the stewardship of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). more

Berners-Lee: Ted Cruz Wrong About How Free Speech Is Censored on the Internet

"Sen. Ted Cruz wants to engineer a United States takeover of a key Internet organization, ICANN, in the name of protecting freedom of expression," said Tim Berners-Lee and Daniel Weitzner in a co-op piece today in the Washington post. more

Ted Cruz May Have a Point

As the time ticks away on Senator Cruz's ersatz Doomsday clock, possibly accompanied by the fat sound of Mic Michaeli's analog synthesiser riff, it is easy to dismiss all his arguments as the ravings of a disappointed Cecil Underwood. Some in the ICANN community have described Cruz as a skilled orator. This isn't precisely accurate. He is certainly a competent orator but his outstanding skill is that he is a brilliant courtroom advocate. more

Internet Stewardship Transition Critical to Internet’s Future

This article was co-authored by Ambassador Daniel A. Sepulveda, serving as U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the U.S. Department of State, Christopher Painter, serving as Coordinator for Cyber Issues at the U.S. Department of State and Scott Busby, serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. ... The growth of the global Internet as an open platform for innovation and economic and social development has succeeded in large part because of its multistakeholder system of governance. more

US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing Held on IANA Transition

"I urge you: Do not give a gift to Russia and other authoritarian nations by blocking this transition," Lawrence Strickling, administrator of the U.S. Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said on Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing Held on IANA Transition. more

Internet Architecture Board: IANA Transition Plan Is Fit for Purpose, Should Go Forward as Planned

The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) statement on the IANA Stewardship Transition released on Wednesday more

We Are Protecting the Internet, Not Giving It to the United Nations

Like many foreigners, I follow U.S. politics closely. What happens in Washington, D.C. on trade, economics, foreign policy, and security matters can often have ripple effects across the world. This is also true with respect to internet policy, and like many who work in the internet industry, I am getting increasingly concerned by some of the news coming out of Washington. more

.Com RA Extension on ICANN Board’s 9/15 Agenda

The ".COM Registry Agreement Amendment" is on the Main Agenda for this Thursday's Regular Meeting of the ICANN Board. The proposed extension of the RA was announced and put out for public comment on June 30th. The public comment period closed on August 12th and ICANN staff's Report of Public Comments was due on September 15th, coincident with the Board meeting. The original due date for that staff Report was August 26th, but was pushed back to accommodate the large number of comments... more

New York’s Department of Financial Services Issues Cybersecurity Proposal

New York state is proposing new rules requiring banks and insurance companies to establish cybersecurity programs and designate an internal cybersecurity officer. more