Costa Rican President Tells ICANN Of Concern Over Internet Restrictions

By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla opened the 43rd meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in San Jose with concern about “attempts to regulate the network among which we have the Stop Online Piracy Act seeking protection of intellectual property by restrictions on the addressing and the Protect intellectual Property Act seeking to extend some national jurisdiction towards the entire cyberspace.”

Alternative online protection and enforcement of digital trade acts should not restrict and control cyberspace, but rather track and limit payment to illegal sites “without limiting the social transformation potential offered by the Internet 2.0,” Chinchilla said. She told the 1,700 participants that the internet should be conceived not as a threat but as a hope, which Costa Rica is encouraging by adding a National Social Digital Convenant to existing convenants on nature and peace (Costa Rica is the only country without an army).

With regard to internet governance, Chinchilla called for building on a real multi-stakeholder model and avoid building more international governance institutions “that are vertical, closed and bureaucratic.” ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom, in his welcome speech, named current challenges for the multi-stakeholder ICANN, including: the new generic top level domain programme (with 254 applicants or up to 50 TLDs have registered so far), growing concerns about cybersecurity, the increasingly complex global geopolitical landscape, and the decision on the renewal of the IANA contract.

But Beckstrom and ICANN Chair Steve Crocker at a press conference both declined to comment in any way on the recent decision by the US government to declare the request for proposals to manage a core element of the internet as failed (IPW, Information and Communications Technology/Broadcasting, 11 March 2012). Beckstrom said the organisation has asked for a debriefing on the decisions and then might share more information.