Legislation

A Process for Developing Internet Policy: The model of the national ICT / Internet Summit

A national ICT strategy is best developed through a consultative process involving a wide range of stakeholders. This principle was recently demonstrated in the Kyrgyz Republic, where the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Global Internet Policy Initiative (GIPI) collaborated with the Government in co-sponsoring a process that included a national ICT strategy "summit." The process leading up to and continuing after the summit provides an important model for digital divide/digital opportunity efforts in other countries.

Application of Defamation Laws to the Internet

This 11 page PDF looks at the application of defamation laws to the Internet. The starting point being: what is illegal offline remains illegal online. While many Internet-related legal issues can be addressed under already established doctrines, technological changes undoubtedly affect the case-by-case application of various legal doctrines or distinctions, and may require new approaches. This paper looks into the challenge of deciding what elements of existing law can be applied to the Internet and what merits development of special rules.

A Process for Developing Internet Policy: The model of the national ICT / Internet Summit

This 4 page document gives an example of the Kyrgyz Republic national ICT strategy that was developed through a consultative process involving a wide range of stakeholders. The process in Kyrgyzstan may not be relevant to all countries. Nonetheless, it is clearly a viable and important model.

Trust and Security in Cyberspace: The legal and policy framework for addressing cybercrime

This 10 page report from the Global Internet Policy Initiative looks at the legal and policy framework needed to create an effective cyberspce environment.

Licensing Options for Internet Service Providers

Part of the Global Internet Policy Initiative, this 8 page paper looks at the benefits and disadvantages of adopting licensing or authorization requirements for ISPs and looks at “best practices” for how the licensing or authorization rules and procedures should be structured.

Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China

This paper shows the results of tests conducted from May 2002 through November 2002 where by the authors attempted to access approximately two hundred thousand web sites. The authors tracked 19,032 web sites that were inaccessible from China on multiple occasions while remaining accessible from the United States. Such sites contained information about news, politics, health, commerce, and entertainment.

New Software Provides Secure Worldwide Tracking And Documentation Of Human Rights Abuses

Martus provides a system for the collection and communication of information on human rights abuse. Data collected can be analyzed, studied, and reports published and appropriate action such as prosecutions or investigations can be taken.

Declaration on Access to Research Data from Public Funding

This announcment is from the meeting of the OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy at Ministerial Level, 29-30 January 2004. The OECD webpage provides details of the meeting and highlights 25 key points emphasising the importance of ensuring the long term sustainability of the research enterprise and the need to involve civil society and business more effectively in the governance of public research.

Internet Law and Policy Forum

The Internet Law & Policy Forum (ILPF) is a nonprofit business association that focuses on the complex issues facing governments and businesses as the Internet becomes an increasingly significant aspect of our economy and society. Through its conferences, working groups, and expert workshops, the ILPF provides a neutral forum and international perspective in order to discover best practices and develop practical solutions for the multi-faceted challenges posed by the Internet in the realms of law, policy, technology and business.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

ICANN is responsible for coordinating the management of the technical elements of the Domain Name System (DNS) to ensure universal resolvability so that all users of the Internet can find all valid addresses. It does this by overseeing the distribution of unique technical identifiers used in the Internet's operations, and delegation of Top-Level Domain names (such as .com, .info, etc.).

Policy Principles - The ICT Framework

Several prominent international bodies have developed principles for Internet policy. There is striking overlap among these recommendations. They provide the starting point for policy development. This website details the recommendations.

Programme in Comparative Media Policy and Law

The Programme in Comparative Media Policy and Law Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford University exists to provide a framework for understanding the background, mechanisms, and prospects of the processes of media restructuring. The Programme is also the UNESCO Chair in Communications Law and Policy for the United Kingdom and manages the Media Know How Project, which provides and disseminates information on British and other European media law and policies that can be used to help develop and reform aspects of Russian media law and practice.

Asian IT Ministers' Declaration 2004 in Hyderabad

The 2004 Hyderabad Declaration details the points agreed upon by the ministers whom attended the conference and lays down recommended action to be taken.

Best Practices for Telecommunications Reform

The main objective for telecommunications reform is to increase accessibility, quality and affordability of services. This 11 page document produced by the Global Internet Policy Initative details the best practices for telecommunications regulatory reform.

Mass Media Regulation and the Internet

In many countries, the question is being asked: What is the proper legal framework for the Internet? In particular, it is being asked: Should the Internet be regulated under the laws applicable to the mass media (radio, television or printed periodicals)? If the Internet is not to be treated as a mass medium, does that mean it is unregulated? This 10 page document fom the Global Internet Policy Initative responds to these questions.

Redelegation of Country Code Top Level Domains

Countries and territories around the world are assigned a unique country code top-level domain name (ccTLD). For each ccTLD, there is a designated manager. In a number of cases, the ccTLD manager is a for-profit entity located outside of the country to which the domain name relates. In these cases, it may be desirable to redelegate management of the ccTLD to a local entity, to bring the management of the ccTLD inside the territory of the country involved and to make the administration of the domain name more responsive to the public interest. This paper outlines a strategy for achieving such a redelegation in cases where the local Internet community deems it desirable.

Regulatory Treatment of 802.11b Services

Within the radio spectrum, there are certain bands devoted to industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) purposes. This 4 page paper from the Global Internet Policy Initative gives an overview of the regulatory posture of ISM and 802.11b. under which 2.4 GHz signals can be used for wireless local area networks (LANs).

Discussion Paper on Retention of Traffic Data

On 27 November 2001, a plenary session took place in Brussels of the EU Forum on Cybercrime, organised by the European Commission. The main topic for discussion was retention of traffic data, on which the European Commission had prepared an informal discussion paper.