News
European Data Protection overhaul - One step ahead
Yet, some contentious points vis-a-vis the European Parliament remain. 1) On the Directive: exceptions regarding the right to information and disclosure of the person concerned; and the need of law enforcement to notify the use of these exceptions. Also, there seems to be no distinction between suspects, witnesses, accused or victims with regards to their fundamental rights. 2) On the Regulation: no clarity on how national data protection authorities are expected to cooperate; on the level of fines for violation; on how exactly individuals authorise companies to process their personal information, and on what exactly the “principle of data minimisation” implies. Also, the conditions for the reuse of data for unrelated purposes that are, however, “compatible” with the original purpose of collecting the data, are not clear. So is the question who can require businesses to appoint a data protection officer (i.e., EU law or national governments).
European Parliament's response to the Digital Single Market Strategy
The co-rapporteurs of both the industry (ITRE) and internal market (IMCO) committees, Kaja Kallas and Evelyne Gebhardt, have published their draft report reacting to the Commission’s Digital Single Market Strategy launched in May 2015. It focuses on the need to (re)build consumers’ trust on online services, e.g. through harmonised contractual rules not only for buying tangible goods online but also digital content. They also stress the need to “boost long-term infrastructure investments” (e.g. through better spectrum allocation) and adjusting the telecoms framework. Other committees gave specific opinions, e.g. JURI on combating illegal content and copyright (to be adopted by the committees). The lead committees IMCO and ITRE will vote on the report in mid-December. A final vote by plenary is expected for January 2016. The outcome, a motion for resolution, is not binding.
NIS Directive stumbling ahead
The European Commission is still hopeful that negotiations about the Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive can be concluded by the end of the year. The working party, however, which is hammering out the Council’s position, is still working on agreement on the types of entities that should be subject to what kind of regulation. The current focus lies on so-called “digital service platforms” (DSPs), such as Facebook, ebay, Paypal, etc., which are likely to be subject to “light-touch” regulation. Defining “operators of essential services”, mainly referring to critical infrastructure, such as nuclear power plants, banks, but also internet operators (such as domain name registries and internet exchange points), is deemed “less controversial” – yet also not resolved. The next trilogue meeting (Commission, Parliament, Council) is scheduled for 17 November, and a potentially concluding one for the beginning of December.
CENTR recognizes industry excellence
On 7 October, CENTR held the second edition of its Awards at the Palais des Académies in Brussels. The CENTR Awards aim at highlighting ccTLD registry projects, teams and people that are making a difference in our industry.
During the ceremony, the finalists in each of the five categories presented short videos of their projects or people nominated. This was a great opportunity to showcase the inspiring projects and teams that truly make a difference in the registries’ world.
This year’s CENTR Awards winners are: Christa Falkensammer (SWITCH), Boban Krsic (DENIC) and Christian Proschinger (NIC.AT) for their collaboration on auditing their respective ISO 27001 ISMS (Security category); Zonemaster by Afnic and IIS (R&D category); AustriaLoves.at - "Darlinks" of the nation, NIC.AT (Marketing category); the Community Investment Program, CIRA (CSR category); and Lise Fuhr, DIFO & DK Hostmaster and Mathieu Weill, Afnic (Contributor of the Year category). Congratulations to all participants!
Photos of the ceremony
Video of the ceremony
Videos of the shortlisted nominees
More information on the Awards
Joint statement from CENTR and the European Commission’s HLIG on the IANA Stewardship Transition and ICANN Accountability improvement processes
European Domain Name System (DNS) stakeholders, including governments and country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registries, have called for the IANA stewardship to be transitioned to the multistakeholder community for a long time. Within the ground rules set by the United States’ National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), stakeholders from across the world have engaged to make sure that the IANA transition and the absence of NTIA oversight goes hand-in-hand with improved accountability and transparency.
At a time when the importance of the internet is steadily increasing – at political, social and economic levels – and in the advent of WSIS+10, it is crucial that the IANA Stewardship Transition process also leads to an improved accountability towards the global internet community.
We wish to reiterate our support to the Cross-Community Working Group on the IANA Stewardship Transition (CWG) and to the work of the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG).
The requirements set forth by the proposals from the CWG and ICG groups can only be met if implemented by credible, enforceable powers in the ultimate interest of all stakeholder groups. This has already been underlined by the unanimous but conditional approval of the CWG proposal by all of ICANN’s Supporting Organizations (SOs) and Advisory Committees (ACs) at the Buenos Aires ICANN Meeting in June 2015.
The accountability proposal has gone through the multistakeholder process, it has been legally assessed and went through two public consultations. The process as outlined by the NTIA was followed and all stakeholders should respect the outcome. The outcome will only have the necessary legitimacy if the bottom-up, consensus-driven process continues to be fully respected.
We strongly encourage all participants in the next face-to-face meeting of the Cross-Community Working Group on Accountability (CCWG) to review the second draft proposal and present it to all stakeholder groups at the ICANN 54 meeting. We are looking forward to seeing a consensus-based draft and updated timeline by the end of the ICANN Dublin meeting. We will work within the process to make sure this happens.
Link to the PDF version of the statement
Registro.it - Internet Festival 2015 edition kicks off
This year the key word is #spazio (space). The Internet and the Web have revolutionised the meaning of the word space; from space as a physical or even virtual place to space for knowledge, for exploring deeper, for sharing, for identity and for creativity – for freedom.
CENTR holds its 48th Legal & Regulatory workshop
On 24 September 2015, CENTR held its 48th L&R workshop in Belgrade, Serbia. In what was probably the longest Tour de Table in the history of the L&R Working Group, participants eagerly shared updates on legal cases that have and continue to trouble them: trademark issues, “evil registrars”, blocking and seizure of domain names, liability for illegal content, etc. In addition, the workshop, kindly hosted by RNIDS, featured topics such as registrar compliance, dropcatching and EU policy updates.
Photos of the event can be found on CENTR's Facebook page and speakers' presentations can be found on the workshop's page.
Blog post: To be or not to be... accountable?
By Giovanni Seppia (EURid), Chair of CENTR's Board of Directors
Read more
CENTR holds its 36th Admin Workshop
On 10 September 2015, the CENTR Admin Working Group held its 36th workshop in Cagliari, Italy. Applying a new format of lightning talks followed by group discussions, the workshop discussed three topics: registry software, two-factor authentication and data privacy. 24 participants from 19 registries followed EURid’s kind invitation to Italy. More information and slides of presentations can be found here and photos of the event on our Facebook page.
CENTR Comment on CCWG ICANN Accountability improvements – 2nd proposal