InternetPolicy.net

Most root servers now outside the US

"For the first time in Internet history the number of instances of DNS root servers outside the United States has overtaken the number within," says a news release from the RIPE Network Control Centre. It was the recent launch of RIPE's "K-root server" in Frankfurt, Germany which tipped the balance.

FTC proposal for sexually-oriented spam

The US Federal Trade Commission is seeking public comments on its proposal to require sexually oriented "spam" messages to contain the phrase “SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT-CONTENT: ” on the Subject line, and to have "the electronic equivalent of a 'brown paper wrapper'" in the message itself. (The "wrapper" is what the recipient would initially see when opening the message. "It would include the prescribed mark or notice, certain other specified information, and no other information or images," according to the FTC announcement.) The period for submitting public comments ends on 17 February. Click here for the text of the official notice published in the Federal Register, including the address where comments should be sent.

Big Brother = RFID monitoring net?

The latest issue of the GILC Alert draws attention to a cooperation agreement signed recently by Verisign, which operates the .com and .net top-level Internet domains, and EPCglobal, a consortium of companies promoting wider use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. Their partnership "may lead to the creation of a global Internet-based surveillance system," warns GILC. Verisign will "operate an Object Naming Service (ONS) as the root directory for a new global tracking network... Some experts fear that this linking of RFID tags to the Internet will worsen [privacy invasion] problems and create a situation where consumers' preferences and geographic location could be tracked with ease via the Information Superhighway. Moreover, the announcement of the Verisign-EPCglobal deal provided no indication as to what measures will be taken to prevent the abuse of personal data collected through the new system."

RFIDWatch is an online news service created by Andreas Krisch to monitor developments in this field.

Key factor in "hotspot" business models patented

Last week, Nomadix announced that it was awarded US Patent number 6,636,894 for an automatic redirection technique that may be a key to success for "hotspot" business models. As they say in their press release: "The functionality contained in this patent is an important component in the deployment of any Public-access network...because it instantly redirects potential customers to a venue owner or service provider's Web site, allowing them to conveniently sign up for the service."

An article about the patent in Broadband Wireless Exchange Magazine added that a "unique advantage of this system is that it operates in a manner transparent to the user. The portable computer user benefits from being able to access different computer networks (such as Wi-Fi HotSpots) without having to reconfigure the host computer in accordance with network specific configurations. The venue owner and network service provider also benefit by easily adding new subscribers."

Interviewed by Alex Goldman of ISP Planet, Nomadix's co-founder and CTO, Joel Short, claimed that they would not use their patent to threaten hotspots. "We want to promote the market, not to shut networks down," he said. "We are encouraging vendors to license our software..." However, he would not say how much a license costs. Still, Rob Flickenger (author of Building Wireless Community Networks) points out that the Nomadix patent covers only one technique for redirection, not the general principle. So it remains to be seen how much it will hamper the development of public access Internet.

New services from Berkman Center

Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Law and Technology announces "two new series to provide a different angle on issues affecting technology and Internet law. AudioBerkman will provide ten audio documentaries that address different topics in Internet law... Berkman Briefings will offer case studies, essay, interviews, and journalistic pieces about issues affecting Internet law, technology, and Berkman Center research. The two Briefings currently available include a story, Diebold v. the Bloggers and a report on the results of WSIS...."

Internet a govt/citizen bridge in China

Xinhua, the state news agency, reports that: "Having become a popular personal communication tool in China, the Internet is gradually entering the country's public affairs decision-making.... In Beijing, the municipal government has posted a notice on Beijing.gov.cn, soliciting public views on 56 major public undertakings planned for 2004. Nationwide, cases of the government using the Internet to communicate with the public have been increasing rapidly... 'Lots of government agencies have come to regard the Internet as a useful tool, one that would help them to make better decisions,' said Professor Liu Qinglong of China's Qinghua University, who is heading a research program on e-government... Public response to the new opportunities created by the Internet has been enthusiastic. According to Xinhuanet.com, more than 40,000 people participated in the on-line chat with Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing last December..." [Thanks to China Digital News for the pointer]

Public comments invited on IPv6

The US National Institute of Standards and the National Telecommunications & Information Administration have requested public input on issues related to the deployment of Internet Protocol version 6. They are broadly interested in "the potential [costs,] uses and benefits of IPv6... current and projected penetration rates of IPv6; and...the appropriate role for the US government in the deployment..." Specific topics on which comments are invited include:

• Potential uses for IPv6's vast address pool
• Is the enlarged address pool the only "compelling reason" to migrate to IPv6? Can other improvements associated with IPv6 be emulated on IPv4 networks?
• Is there a "chicken and egg" problem in network conversion and IPv6 application development?
• Problems with the concurrent handling of IPv4 and IPv6 datastreams during the transition, and lessons learned so far from IPv6 deployments: will market forces alone be enough to drive the process? Why are some organizations choosing not to implement IPv6? What level of adoption will tip the scales in favor of IPv6?
• Do other protocol layers need to be modified to take full advantage of IPv6 (for example, TCP or UDP)?
• How to measure the state of deployment?
• What new kinds of applications can arise from IPv6, and with what economic impact?
• Will IPv6 put new burdens on routers? Will it improve or degrade Voice-over-IP?
• Are there regional shortages of IPv4 addresses?
• The impact of Network Address Translation (NAT) devices, Classless-Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) and other "address conservation strategies" on network performance and reliability. Will continued use of NATs inhibit development of new peer-to-peer applications?
• What is needed for successful deployment of the Internet Protocol Security Architecture (IPsec)?
• Thoughts on "the desirability and potential effort required to return the Internet to a unified open scheme as originally designed" - or should firewalls and other protective filters be encouraged instead?

Comments are due by 8 March 2004. They may be submitted via email to IPv6@ntia.doc.gov, or on paper and diskette to:

Office of Policy Analysis and Development
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
Room 4725
Attention: Internet Protocol, Version 6 Proceeding
1401 Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20230 USA

See the formal notice published in the US Federal Register for essential details about the formats to be used when filing comments.

Open Global Forum on Internet Governance

Earlier this week we noted that the ITU will convene a Workshop on Internet Governance on 26-27 February in Geneva. Yet it was Kofi Annan who was asked by WSIS to organize the drafting of a report with recommendations on this subject. To that end we learned from the International Chamber of Commerce that there will be an Open Global Forum on 25-26 March 2004 in New York hosted by the UN's ICT Task Force. Apparently the purpose of the Forum is to discuss the composition and methods of activity of the "Internet Governance Working Group" to be created by the UN Secretary General. In the meantime, according to ICC, the UN's ICT Task Force has created its own Internet Governance Advisory Committee, headed by Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh (click here to see his resume).

Unfortunately, the agenda of the Open Global Forum is not at the ICT Task Force's website - at least not on the public pages yet - even though ICC says that written contributions are being solicited for discussion at the Forum. Nor does the UN ICT Task Force's website mention their new Internet Governance Advisory Committee. Why is that?

ICC paper on Internet governance

A 16-page overview of the issues and institutions involved in Internet governance has just been released by the International Chamber of Commerce's Commission on E-Business, IT and Telecoms. An easy-to-understand introduction to the field, it describes 3 distinct aspects of governance: technical engineering and protocols; naming and numbering; and public policy questions like privacy and copyright protection, taxation, spam, etc. An Annex summarizes ICC's views on the proper role of stakeholders in tackling the various issues - i.e., where government action is needed, where market forces should prevail, and where self-regulation may be sufficient. Download the ICC Issues Paper on Internet Governance by clicking here. [Thanks to Jane Clinton on CircleID for the pointer.]

Announcing a new "cyber alert" system

Later today, the US Department of Homeland Security's National Cyber Security Division is expected to announce a new "cyber alert" system. The system may use color codes like the one warning people about the level of risk of a terrorist attack. The cyber alert could debut at an elevated level because of the rapidly spreading MyDoom/Novarg.A virus.