"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." ~ Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Global Petition to ICANN Board of Directors: "Keep the Core Neutral"
Mon, 06/11/2007 - 07:00 — dan
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Everyone has the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas without interference through any media, including cyberspace.
As the new generic top-level domain name space emerges and policy choices are made about how ideas may be expressed at the Internet's top-level, we ask ICANN to keep the core neutral of non-technical disputes and choose policies that respect freedom of expression and permit innovation in the new domain name space.
Encouraging the free flow of information is a foundational principle of public policy decisions related to information and communication technology. Freedom of expression rights, which are fundamental in an Information Society, foster democratic participation, individual empowerment, and economic development.
Cyberspace remains a unique and special place that bridges ancient divisions, where diverse communities interact readily, and all views are welcome. But only if these attributes are valued by policymakers who set Internet governance rules and incorporated into policies about how ideas may be expressed in domain names.
We ask that ICANN stay within its technical mandate and refrain from embedding particular national, regional, moral, or religious policy objectives into global rules over the use of language in domain names. It would be dangerous "mission-creep" for ICANN to adjudicate between conflicting policy objectives and set global standards for expression that are enforced through ICANN's technical function. Please do not allow ICANN to become a convenient lever of global control by those seeking to censor unpopular or controversial expression on the Internet.
Please keep the Internet’s technical core neutral from national or other ideological conflicts, allowing freedom and innovation to flourish in cyberspace.
Signed (individuals sign on their own behalf, titles listed for identification purposes only),
Note: selected signatures displayed below, for full list click here.
- AGEIA DENSI Argentina (Argentina)
- AGEIA DENSI Brasil (Brazil)
- ALCEI Electronic Frontiers (Italy)
- ARTICLE 19 (United Kingdom)
- Artoge (Netherlands)
- Asociación por los Derechos Civiles/ADC (Argentina)
- Association For Community Networking (USA)
- Association for Progressive Communications/APC (International)
- Karl Auerbach (USA)
- Bits of Freedom (Netherlands)
- Ian Brown, Senior Research Fellow, University of London (United Kingdom)
- Bulgarian Institute for Legal Development (Bulgaria)
- Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic/CIPPIC (Canada)
- Cleiton Capellossi, Economist (Brazil)
- Marco Cappato, Member of European Parliament (Italy)
- Cassiopea (Belgium)
- Centro Tecnologia Sociedade - Fundação Getúlio Vargas (CTS-FGV) (Brazil)
- Chaos Computer Club (Germany)
- CLUE - Canadian Association for Open Source (Canada)
- Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility/CPSR (USA)
- CPSR-Peru (Peru)
- Connecting.nyc Inc. (USA)
- Consumer Reports WebWatch (USA)
- Fiorello Cortiana, member of Italian Advisory Committee on Internet Governance (Italy)
- CTS (Brazil)
- Digital Rights DK (Denmark)
- DomainNews.com (USA)
- dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG (Germany)
- DotPiggy.com (USA)
- DP3.COM / IDCNET (Brazil)
- William Drake (Switzerland)
- Electronic Frontier Finland (Finland)
- Electronic Frontier Foundation/EFF (USA)
- Electronic Frontier Norway (Norway)
- Electronic Frontiers Australia (Australia)
- European Digital Rights/EDRI (Europe)
- Fagerheim Software (Norway)
- Fantsuam Foundation (Nigeria)
- First Amendment Project (USA)
- Steve Foerster, Director of E-Learning, Marymount University (USA)
- Fonte de Luz (Brazil)
- Foundation for Media Alternatives (Philippines)
- FraJa WeB (Netherlands)
- Free Expression Policy Project (USA)
- Free Press (USA)
- Fundación Vía Libre (Argentina)
- Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, University of Ottawa (Canada)
- Eric Goldman, Assistant Professor, Santa Clara University School of Law (USA)
- James Görgen, Epcom, (Brazil)
- gulBAC (Argentina)
- Hooke Laboratories, Inc. (USA)
- Franco Iacomella (Argentina)
- Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire/IRIS (France)
- Instituto del Tercer Mundo/ITeM (Uruguay)
- Interaction Law (USA)
- Internet Domain Owners Association (USA)
- Internet Governance Forum At Large [IGFatLarge] (Switzerland)
- Internet Governance Project (USA)
- Intlnet (France)
- IP Justice (USA/International)
- Kadory Interactive (France)
- Mitchell Kapor/Kapor Enterprises, Inc. (USA)
- Eddan Katz, Yale Information Society Project (USA)
- Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law, Stanford University (USA/Germany)
- MajorClick.com! (Canada)
- Media Access Project (USA)
- Media Alliance (USA)
- MetaCafé (Brazil)
- Micro Media ADB (Norway)
- Micro Technology Unlimited (USA)
- Ministry of Culture - Brazil
- Samantha Murphy, Founder/Producer, SMtv Music LLC (USA)
- MyMart (United Kingdom)
- N-CAP (Canada)
- Charles Nesson, Professor of Law, Harvard University (USA)
- Netzwerk Neue Medien (Germany)
- Derek A. Newman/Newman & Newman, Attorneys at Law, LLP (USA)
- Nomer.com [1st ICANN accredited Registrar in Latin America] (Brazil)
- Non-Commercial Users Constituency, ICANN/NCUC (International)
- Nupef/Rits (Brazil)
- Office for Information Technology Policy, American Library Association/OITP (USA)
- Oneworld - Platform for Southeast Europe/OWPSEE (Europe)
- ONG Derechos Digitales (Chile)
- Open Institute (Cambodia)
- Open Knowledge Foundation (United Kingdom)
- Pangea (Spain)
- Marco Perduca, UN Representative for Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (Italy)
- Piratenpartei Deutschland (Germany)
- Piratenpartei Österreich (Austria)
- Piratpartiet (Sweden)
- David Post, Professor of Law, Beasley School of Law, Temple University (USA)
- Privaterra (Canada)
- Public Knowledge (USA)
- Quintessenz Kampaigns (Austria)
- Rack IT Solutions (Germany)
- Rede de Informacoes para o Terceiro Setor/RITS (Brazil)
- Ride-This Inc. (USA)
- Katitza Rodriguez (Peru)
- SaferNet Brasil (Brazil)
- Wendy Seltzer, Professor of Law, Northeastern University / Fellow, Harvard Berkman Center (USA)
- Stasi.nl (Netherlands)
- Tupinambá Produções (Brazil)
- Van Caubergh & Kulkarni Language Expertise (Netherlands)
- VIBE!AT (Austria)
- Dirk Voorhoof, Professor of Law, Ghent University (Belgium)
- Wildblue (Germany)
- Wireless Nomad ISP Co-Op (Canada)
- Work Group on Constitutional Internet Governace [WGCIG] (Switzerland)
- xCAT.nl Publishing (Netherlands)
To add your name to the petition and join our coalition, please submit your name/organization below. (If you include an organization name we will use that as the signatory, but we will retain your contact information as primary contact for your organization.) Your name will be added as we periodically update our petition/coalition list.
We also encourage you to sign up for our Newsletter, for news updates and actions, and to join our Public Discussion List to talk about gTLD policy. If you opt to join our coalition, we will invite you separately to join our Internal Discussion List.