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European Digital Rights Initiative (EDRI) has joined more than 100 individuals and organizations from around the world in signing the petition "Keep The Core Neutral" urging ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ) to resist efforts to evaluate applications for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) based on non-technical criteria such as ideas about morality and competing national political objectives.

The "Keep the Core Neutral" coalition is concerned that ICANN's draft policy includes evaluation criteria that go well beyond technical considerations of operational stability and security and exceeds the organization's mandate of technical coordination.

In particular, ICANN is considering policy that would reject applications for new gTLDs if they violate globally fixed standards on "morality" or "public order". But the lack of global standards on morality and policy objectives invites nations with restrictions on free expression to impose censorship on the entire world by blocking the creation of certain domains. There is also concern that religious institutions and business competitors will be allowed to object to new domain name applications based on non-technical and non-legal criteria.

Creating a precedent for generalized public governance would be dangerous, as the private corporation does not have a democratic governance structure that is accountable to the public or that includes protections for the rights of Internet users.

The proposed policy also threatens to extend unrelated concepts derived from commercial trademark law onto non-commercial expression, but domain names are distinct from trademarks in significant ways. Trademark rights only regulate a particular type of commercial speech, while ICANN policy could expand trademark restrictions onto non-commercial expression and prevent online criticism of companies and products.

In a 27 June 2007 workshop at the San Juan ICANN meeting, a distinguished panel of legal and technical experts addressed these issues including former ICANN Board Member and attorney Michael Palage, who co-authored a 2006 essay "Please, Keep the Core Neutral", which served as inspiration for the coalition's global petition.

Keep The Core Neutral : Global Petition Urges ICANN to Protect Free Expression and Innovation in Domain Name Policy (30.06.2007)
http://www.keep-the-core-neutral.org/node/26

Global Petition to ICANN Board of Directors: "Keep the Core Neutral" (11.06.2007)
http://www.keep-the-core-neutral.org/petition

Transcript of Keep the Core Neutral Workshop (27.06.2007)
http://sanjuan2007.icann.org/files/sanjuan/SanJuan-NCUCALACWorkshop-27...