Internet Governance Project

IGP Scientific Committee members are frequently interviewed for background information or mentioned in the media world wide. If you have a general press related inquiry, email: press[at]internetgovernance.org

In the Media

1 Mar 2010 PCWorld: ICANN Head Visiting China After 'dot-China' Request: "Chinese government crackdowns "are coming from higher levels and CNNIC is as much an object of tighter regulations as, say, Google or the content providers," said Milton Mueller..."

22 Feb 2010 CircleID: Will Stonewalling on .xxx Be Beckstrom's First Big Mistake?: "In a blog post on the .xxx defeat, ICANN's Rod Beckstrom simply can't bring himself to restate the basic conclusions of the decision...a distinguished independent review panel ruled unambiguously that ICANN approved the .xxx TLD as meeting its sponsorship, business and financial criteria in the RFP and then withdrew that approval in an unfair and discriminatory manner due to political pressure."

19 Jan 2010 CircleID: ICANN's Weak Accountability Remains a Problem: "ICANN's lack of accountability was a leading concern expressed by several major organizations in response to DOC's April 2009 notice of inquiry regarding the expiration of the JPA. As the Internet Governance Project stated, 'external accountability is still the main problem with ICANN.'"

15 Dec 2009 California Lawyer: Trouble in Cyberspace: IGP's Milton Mueller applauded the "step away from unilateral U.S. oversight," but found that ICANN's new commitments still lacked globally applicable rules of operation, and failed to indicate any concern for freedom of expression.

5 Oct 2009 COMMSDAY: Lynch on Monday: The end of US control of the ‘Net: Dr Milton Mueller is critical of the review processes that form an integral part of the new arrangements between ICANN and the US Government.

2 Oct 2009 The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Eases Grip Over Web Body : New agreement between the US government and ICANN grants the non-profit body more flexibility in terms of not reporting to the US government in future, instead ICANN will now set-up review panels, Dr Milton Mueller comments “"It's appointing panels really to review itself."

2 Oct 2009 PCWorld: New ICANN Agreement Runs Into Criticism: Brenden Kuerbis questions the independence of the review panels that would be formed as per the new US Government-ICANN deal. He says "They're selected by the very people responsible for what ICANN does. They're likely to produce the politics that already exist within ICANN."

1 Oct 2009 Information Week: US Agreement With ICANN Leaves Much Undone: Dr Milton Mueller says that the US Department of Commerce still retains fundamental, high-level control over the domain name space, despite the latest agreement with ICANN.

1 Oct 2009 Marketplace: A new era for domain name endings : Dr Milton Mueller comments on ICANN’s decision of creating more domain name endings, he says”ICANN's decision was kind of thrown into the U.S. political system, where large businesses with brands to protect objected strongly.”

1 Oct 2009 IP Watch: Global Oversight For Internet; US Role In Core Infrastructure Unchanged : Dr Milton Mueller says that despite the recent deal between ICANN and the US government, the latter still controls the DNS root zone file.

11 Jun 2009: Internet Evolution: Group Proposes International Alternative to ICANN : The IGP calls for replacing the Commerce Department's JPA with ICANN with an international formal agreement providing global shared accountability for stable, coordinated governance of the Internet..

9 Jun 2009: Business Wire: Internet Governance Project Calls For U.S.-Led International Agreement On ICANN : The IGP states that the Joint Project Agreement (JPA) between the Commerce Department and ICANN contributes to the latter’s failings.

30 March 2009 IP-Watch: Is WIPO A Cybersquatter? (subscription required) The academic Internet Governance Project reports that the World Intellectual Property Organization - a key arbitration body for global internet domain disputes - appears to have registered a domain name using a name trademarked by someone else three years earlier.

28 April 2008 Washington Internet Daily: Public Interest Registry Seeks to be First gTLD to Offer DNS Attacks Protection (subscription required) Kuerbis comments on PIR's proposal to secure the .org zone.

25 January 2008 Times Online UK: The Web Weans Itself Off the US Dr. Milton Mueller on ICANN, "Compared with other international organisations ICANN is very transparent, but at times it still feels a bit more like a private club, with not enough checks and balances. This new 'no confidence vote' procedure is definitely the direction they need to move in."

14 January 2008 Trouw: Privacy is een politieke keuze (Privacy is a political choice) (In Dutch) New Delft University of Technology XS4ALL Chair Milton Mueller is interviewed about the poltical-economy of privacy.

14 November 2007 Heisse Online: IGF: Politische und technische Probleme bei DNSSEC (In German) Major technical and political difficulties DNSSEC dominated by the intense debate on the opportunities and risks of securing the DNS at the second Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio de Janeiro.

1 November 2007 Associated Press: Whois Studies Approved, Privacy Deferred "We seem to be closing off the development process at the same time we're opening the box to the same old debates that have been going on for seven years," complained Milton Mueller, a Syracuse University professor on the committee. "The whole world is watching now. ... They're expecting ICANN to do something about this."

30 October 2007 Washington Post: No Clear on Consensus on Openness of 'Whois' Domain Name Database Milton Mueller believes ICANN is likely to punt on the Whois issue by voting for more studies.

30 October 2007 IP Watch: IP Community Critical Of Proposals On ICANN Agenda Milton Mueller comments against an announcement of ICANN staff that the Whois exemption procedure was dependent upon input from the Government Advisory Committee.

12 October 2007 Washington Post: A Script for Every Surfer

25 September 2007 Free Press Media Reform Daily: Another National Internet Threatened: Russia

9 July 2007 EContent Magazine: IGP Proposal Highlights Global Nature of Digital Security Concerning DNSSEC, Kuerbis says that "it's too risky for a single organization to sign the root and too inefficient if the root is not signed. That is why authority for signing the root needs to be decentralized and distributed to nongovernmental organizations. The internet's DNS is a global facility; policy concerning it requires broad participation, especially when it comes to matters as important as security."

1 July 2007 PC World: ICANN's Next Challenge: Find a New Leader Mueller credits Vint Cerf with giving ICANN stability and cohesiveness to the board, but faults him for "a very conservative and limiting approach to ICANN policies."

21 May 2007 Vulnerabilite.com: DNSSEC et la sécurisation de la racine : L'IGP publie sa proposition

19 May 2007 O'Reilly Radar: DNS root servers and DNSSEC examined A 17-page paper on DNSSEC and the DNS root servers, released Thursday by the Internet Governance Project, is well worth a read. Its main subject is a proposal for distributing the responsibility for signing the keys for the root servers, but it touches on many other interesting considerations.

18 May 2007 ACM TechNews: Academic Group Releases Plan to Share Power Over Internet Root Zone Keys According to IGP spokesperson Brenden Kuerbis, their DNSSEC proposal "increases the resilience of the system, eliminates the threat of political interference in Internet administration, and diffuses liability among the entities involved."

16 May 2007 International Herald Tribune: Positions on Icann, the Internet addressing agency, are open Milton Mueller calls the ICANN nominating process "deliberately non-transparent," and favors a return to public elections.

2 April 2007 IP Watch: Rights and Content Issues May Complicate Internet Domain Name Expansion Mueller warns that the gtld proposal presented by the ICANN-GNSO would "create a political process of censorship."

3 November 2006 InternetNews: Microsoft And The China Question Fred Tipson, of Microsoft, was in Athens, Greece, as part of the Internet Governance Project and part of a panel called "Freedom of Expression and Internet blocking and filtering."

2 November 2006 BBC News: How to make the web go worldwide Professor Milton Mueller, of the Internet Governance Project, said the key to closing the infrastructure gap was the mobilisation of "local capital"

2 November 2006 UN Press Release PI/1750: INTERNET SHOULD BE "ACCESSIBLE, USABLE AND SAFE", INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM TOLD IGP sponsored workshop on DNS and root zone file management is among highlights of the successful IGF, opens further discussion concerning the "elephant in the room."

31 October 2006 IP Watch: Online Content Among Many Issues At Internet Governance Forum Milton Mueller comments on the purpose and process of the ongoing Internet Governance Forum.

27 October 2006 UNESCO: L’UNESCO abordera le risque de fragmentation d’Internet et le respect de la liberté d’expression au Forum sur la gouvernance d’Internet

5 October 2006 InfoWorld: Tension envelops U.S. oversight of ICANN following extension Milton Mueller comments on the role the U.S. government plays in the problem of ICANN's accountability and process.

4 October 2006 National Journal's Technology Daily: Global Community Reacts To ICANN Deal (subscription required) IGP criticizes the newly released JPA, calling it a "cosmetic response" meant to strengthen public perception that ICANN is relatively independent when it is not.

1 September 2006 bridges Magazine: From Unilateralism to Multi-stakeholder - a Change of Paradigm in Internet Governance? The Austrian Office of Science & Technology cites IGP's work extensively as it examines the question of who should govern the internet and finds it to be more disputed today than ever.

3 April 2006 Wall Street Journal: Technology Report - Recommended Reading (subscription required) Hans Klein comments on a selection of what he considers among the best books and online resources about Internet governance.

20 November 2005 BBC Talking Point - WSIS and Internet Governance - Discussion with Ambassador Gross

16 November 2005 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty - The battle over the internet

16 November 2005 KPFK, Pacifica Radio - Internet Governance Discussed at World Summit

15 November 2005 NYTimes.com - Technology Section - Other Nations Hope to Loosen U.S. Grip on Internet

15 November 2005 NPR.org - Morning Edition - United Nations Weighs U.S. Control of Internet Naming

15 November 2005 OpenDemocracy.net - Why the WSIS? Democracy and cyberspace

14 November 2005 BBC.co.uk - The US role in running the net

14 November 2005 InfoToday.com - WSIS Still Clouded by Governance Debates - Fate of ICANN Awaits

14 November 2005 Digital Divide Network - WSIS Still Clouded by Governance Debates - Fate of ICANN Awaits

4 November 2005 Linuxworld.net.au - Group suggests a 'denationalization' of ICANN

4 November 2005 eWeek.com - Academics Take Sides in ICANN Tug of War

3 November 2005 ComputerWorld Austalia - Group suggests a 'denationalization' of ICANN