Internet Governance Outlook 2013: "Cold Internet War" or "Peaceful Internet Coexistence"?

Anyone who expected that with the end of the Dubai ITU World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in December 2012, the heated debate on the future regulation of the Internet will slow down should remember to fairytale of the battle of the knight with the seven-headed dragon. Hardly a head is cut off, another is growing. In 2013 the discussion on Internet freedom will likely gain in sharpness.

In fact, in 2013 the Internet governance debate will continue at least in seven different venues. The list is as below:

1. The ITU World Telecommunication Policy Forum (Geneva, May 2013)
2. UNCSTD Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation (Geneva, June 2013)
3. WSIS 10 + (Paris, February 2013)
4. 68th UN General Assembly (New York, October 2013)
5. The 8th Internet Governance Forum (Bali, November 2013)
6. ICANN (Beijing, Durban. Buenos Aires)
7. G8 & G20 (Lough Erne and St. Petersbourg)

2012 has leaded to a growing polarization. Now the tone of the controversy seems to become more aggressive. Almost a quarter of a century after the end of the Cold War of the 20st century, we witness now in the 21st the emergence of a global political scenario which more or less exactly follows this cold war model, not along the old "isms", but along a different understanding of freedom, human rights, innovation, control and the role of governments. Like fire and water, two incompatible ideas about how the Internet should be organized worldwide stand against each other and form two poles of broad spectrum of different opinions.

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Beauty lies in the ‘domain’ of the highest bidder

Icann, the global authority dealing with domain names, is hastening the threat of monopolisation on the internet through its new scheme to sell generic words.

L’Oréal has applied for the top level domain (TLD) .beauty to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), the global authority dealing with domain names on the Internet. TLDs are what we see on the right side of the dot in domain names — for example, .com and .net. If L’Oréal gets .beauty, which seems very likely, it will be able to reserve this top level domain name just for its own use. Unlike .com, .org, .net etc, which are public TLDs, .beauty will be a private TLD. What this means is that, for instance, “Raji Curls,” a beauty salon, will not be able to ask for www.rajicurls.beauty, as one could have in the case of .com. L’Oréal will have the exclusive use of .beauty, as its private property. If L’Oréal were to seek a trademark for “beauty,” it will be flatly refused. The word is too generic for anyone to be given monopoly rights over it. It is therefore surprising that L’Oréal should be able to get global monopoly rights on .beauty, just because it is willing to pay $1,85,000, the application fees for new TLDs, to Icann.

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