Hi Sam,

Thanks for the response. The issue of the timing of the Webinar and the time constraints is perfectly understandable. I’m guessing this is an issue that is not unique to this situation, and is something most will have to deal with at least once throughout the next week.

Regarding the brand protection issue, I’m not sure I see what you mean when you differentiate between the “in house meaning” and the “generic sense”. But that’s why I asked for a recording of the Webinar, which Klaus was very kind to provide. I hope to get the same for the Singapore Webinar.

To clarify my concern, even if there is a differentiation between the two ways of looking at brand protection, how will this translate into gTLD policy positions when it comes to issues like the upcoming post-EWG PDP, or the possible revision of the Public Interests Commitments Specification of the registry agreement (as examples)?

I’m not saying that I want to (in any way) shepherd the representation of CS in these cases to a particular direction. However, from my humble experience in a country where brand protection is not remotely on the CS radar, I’m just trying to learn more about out how/why it is on yours.

I’ll happily go over any material you provide me with now, or in the future.

Thanks again.

Amr

On Feb 4, 2015, at 1:54 AM, Sam Lanfranco <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Amr, (& Dan)

I have been traveling so please excuse my delay in responding to you and Dan, and thanks Lori and Klaus for your comments. I have two short clarification comments.

1. The time slot for this Webinar was set where it is because of time constraints and the main target participants (South East Asian Civil Society Organizations).

2. There is a slight confusion around the term "brand protection". Within the walls of the ICANN community the term Brand Protection (Upper Case to stress the point) has an "in house" meaning with a long history. It is useful to think of the underlying issue in a more generic sense, with a focus more (in this Webinar) on the issues around "brand" confronting South East Asian Civil Society Organizations. This in no way ignores the issues around individual protections, including consumer protection, human rights issues, etc. , or some of the contentious problems between stakeholder interests.

Civil Society and Not-for-Profit organizations have their own identities to protect and if you will recall, that was one of the initial factors in the creation of NPOC, and NPOC is hosting this webinar. Much of the standard list of issues around brand protection impact individuals and organizations, but there are  two that are of particular importance to the Civil Society Organization constituency:
  • Civil Society organization slow awareness and engagement with the DNS system, losing the opportunity of good domain names to others, both innocent registrants and cyber-squatters. This is the "you snooze, you lose" risk, and part of the intent of awareness raising within the Civil Society organization community.  I am talking about Civil Society organizations whose mission and vision have nothing to do with the Internet Ecosystem (e.g. health, poverty, gender, etc.), but who increasingly depend on properties of that system to pursue their work.
  •  South East Asia is a region particularly prone to natural disasters (typhoons, floods, earthquakes, etc.) and Civil Society organizations, and consumer/donor interests, are often the target of rogue Internet efforts designed to steal donations. [I recently participated in closing down one operation that involved an Eastern European effort, using crowd sourcing, and trying to scam donation money in the name of Ebola relief.]

Lastly, it is important, on occasion, for us (within ICANN) to remember that our internal language will have different meanings in different contexts. That is especially important when outreach includes awareness raising and greater engagement in Internet ecosystem issues from "their perspective", which for NPOC means a focus more on Civil Society at the organization level, while not ignoring the issues of individuals in Civil Society. This is in addition to ICANN's interest in Civil Society's greater engagement in ICANN's multistakeholder processes.

Hope that helps clear some things up a bit.

Sam L.


On 2015-02-03 10:22 AM, Amr Elsadr wrote:
[log in to unmask]" type="cite">
Hi Sam,

Unfortunately, this webinar will take place midway through constituency day, so it’ll be pretty difficult for those who wish to participate in their own groups’ meetings (either in person or remotely) to attend the webinar.

I am certainly interested to listen in, and will try to in the future. One of the topics I find to be of great interest is brand protection. I find the mix of civil society online, domain names and brand protection to be more than just a little odd. Now I’m not saying that protection of brands is a bad thing, but when it comes to gTLD policies, I have found that achieving almost all of the goals that I have come to believe are important to civil society put us in direct conflict with the interests of brand owners.

I would assume (and hope) that there is some way for civil society to approach this issue differently than the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC), but it looks like one of the presenters of this topic is actually one of the IPC’s GNSO councillors.

Will there be a recording of the webinar? Like I said, I’d be very interested to hear more on this.

Thanks.

Amr

On Feb 3, 2015, at 1:41 PM, Sam Lanfranco <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Singapore Pathfinder Webinar Program

"What every Civil Society Organization should Know about 
its use of the Internet and Never Dared to Ask! - Part 2"

(South East Asia Regional Webinar)

Date & Time: February 10, 2015 11:30-13:00 SGT (3:30-5:00 UTC)

Event Location: Moor Room, Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore

Civil Society and Non-Governmental Organizations are the Internet’s largest stakeholder group, and they are becoming increasingly dependent on how the Internet operates in order to carry out work in pursuit of their vision and Mission.

This regional Pathfinder webinars and dialogues series is designed to address vital operational concerns, explore challenges and present effective strategic uses of the Internet by Civil Society and NGO organizations. Presenters from Internet stakeholder groups will address issues that directly impact Civil Society organization use of the Internet. This is Pathfinder’s second regional session. The first was in Washington D.C. in early January. There are more to follow. Pathfinder is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership Foundation . This South East Asia Regional Webinar is hosted by ICANN’s Not-For-Profit Operational Concerns Constituency (NPOC) with assistance from Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP (Washington D.C.) and the Alpha & Omega Law Corporation (Singapore)

Topic 1: "Making it work for you: Emerging Opportunities and Challenges for Civil Society Organizations on the Internet"
Presenter: Sam Lanfranco, Chair, NPOC Policy Committee; Chair, ISOC-Canada Public Policy Committee 

Topic 2: "Civil Society Online: Domain Names, Brand Protection and Abuse Prevention" 
Presenters: Renee Xavier, Director, Alpha & Omega Law Firm (Singapore); Brian J. Winterfeldt, Head of Internet Practice, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP (Washington D.C.)

Topic 3: "ICANN's Role in Civil Society Organization Internet Opportunities and Challenges"
Presenters: Jean-Jacques Sahel, Civil Society Engagement, ICANN; Nigel Hickson, IG matters, ICANN

Moderator: Rudi Vansnick, Chair, Not-for-Profit Operational Concerns Constituency (NPOC)

For information on remote participation and questions see: http://www.gkpf.org/portal.php?p=webinarSg150210