A huge thanks to Joly for taping the entire NYC session on Monday. He has posted great segments -including my speech and some explosive speeches from New Yorkers for Fair Use of Jay Sulzberger and Seth Johnson. Posted at the top of: www.isoc-ny.org Tx Joly! Kathy > Video of Kathy's speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgUC869bTVM > > > > *Good morning,* > > *My name is Kathryn Kleiman and I represent a group not even > listed on the descriptions of attendees in the ICANN signup > for today – I represent registrants.* > > *In my group, ICANN’s Noncommercial Users Constituency, our > 102 members register their domain names on behalf of human > rights groups, public interest groups, community and political > groups worldwide. Some members risk their lives and > livelihoods to post content about corruption, extortion and > malfeasance. It is some of the very highest uses of the Internet.* > > *Yet, our domain names, and those we register in the future, > will be at risk under the IRT proposal. I have been asked to > share 3 quick points:* > > *1. The IRT proposal provides for only one type of abuse when > there are two. The IRT fears trademark infringement, but not > trademark lawyer abuse. Every day, trademark lawyers threaten > domain names. Under the guise of trademark infringement, they > drive out new competitors, squash those who investigate or > criticize them, or simply try to snatch away a good domain > name they did not think to register. The next group must dig > from the deep expertise on both side of the abuse aisle; the > next version must mitigate both abusive experiences.* > > *2. The IRT proposal goes far beyond the two limits which > should be its bounds, that ICANN is a technical body with a > limited scope and mission, and that trademark law as it exists > under every law is bounded by protections for fair use and > freedom of expression and the right to simply use language.* > > *For example, * > > *A. The IP Clearinghouse takes ICANN into the job of global > rights protection and beyond its mission as a technical > manager of domain names. For ICANN to enter this field would > require it to become a trademark office, an examiner of the > registered and unregistered marks being entered. For ICANN not > be such an examiner, would create a gigantic database of > unverified intellectual property which will be misused not > only again against future domain name registrants but far > outside the scope of ICANN as well.* > > *There may well be a need for this type of service, but the > market */*has shown that it can and will provide it. This is > one need the market should be allowed to meet*/*.* > > *B. The Globally Protected marks List brings ICANN into an > area even WIPO dares not tread. There is no international > consensus on globally famous marks, and no list of such marks > prepared by WIPO nor any other international organization. It > is beyond the scope and mission of ICANN to be the first down > this path. Further, the GPML proposal goes awry by protecting > these trademarks, not as marks for certain goods and services, > but as strings of characters protected across all new gTLDs, > regardless of use or relevance. This list will remove from the > domain name dictionary basic words, including Apple, Sun, Time > and People. That ICANN cannot allow. * > > 100. > > *The Uniform Rapid Suspension Service is among the most > dangerous provisions. It will replace the Uniform > Dispute Resolution Policy with a faster, cheaper and > fundamentally more unfair process. It strips UDRP of > those few aspects that made it fair, including strong > requirements for notice, and a reasonable response time. > Domain name registrants will lose their domain names and > website speech before they ever know a challenge has > been filed. As many said in their comments, this is a > case of UDRP reform, but an invalid UDRP replacement.* > > *We have strong objections to the thick whois and > post-delegation dispute mechanism, but time grows short.* > > > > *Overall, the IRT Report includes only one half of trademark > law – its rights, but not its limits or fair use protections. > The free and fair use of language requires this balance – and > the free and fair of domain names too. * > > > > *For Registrants, those at the base of the ICANN Pyramid, > those registering domain name for years into the future, we > have to get these rules right, and we must make them fair. * > > > > *Thank you.* > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------- > Joly MacFie 917 442 8665 Skype:punkcast > WWWhatsup NYC - http://wwwhatsup.com > http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com > ---------------------------------------------------------------