ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé and former National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, now a partner at consulting firm RiceHadleyGates, led an off-the-record roundtable event Monday on the national security and geostrategic implications of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition, stakeholders told us. The event, at the Atlantic Council’s Washington office, was aimed at civil society Internet governance stakeholders but also included State Department officials, an industry official said. The event was also an opportunity for invited stakeholders to learn what they “can do in the critical coming months, as ICANN prepares to present” the IANA transition proposal and a related set of proposed changes to ICANN’s accountability mechanisms to NTIA for final approval, an invitation to the roundtable said. The roundtable is “really another in a long series of events we’ve participated in to raise awareness among” Washington-based parties about the IANA transition as planning for the transition has continued to progress, said ICANN Vice President-Business Engagement Chris Mondini. The roundtable was a follow-up to a similar off-the-record Atlantic Council event earlier this year. ICANN has participated in “dozens of these smaller roundtables,” including events at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Mondini said. ICANN’s presence at the off-the-record roundtable raised concerns among some stakeholders amid a push for ICANN to increase its transparency, though an industry lobbyist said hosting organizations -- rather than ICANN -- typically dictate whether such meetings are on or off the record. The Atlantic Council and Hadley didn’t comment. This roundtable specifically focused on general security issues on how international pressure in the Internet governance space might lead to balkanization of the Internet along national borders, Mondini told us. The session wasn’t being held in connection with recent concerns about government stakeholders’ demands for revisions to the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability’s (CCWG-Accountability) proposed ICANN accountability mechanism changes, Mondini said. CCWG-Accountability hasn’t reached consensus on whether to propose amending ICANN’s bylaws to require the ICANN board to find a “mutually acceptable solution” when the Governmental Advisory Committee provides advice that’s supported by GAC member consensus. CCWG-Accountability is also grappling with a proposal from Brazil and several other GAC members to resurrect a 2014 proposal to amend the ICANN bylaws to require two-thirds of the ICANN board to vote to be able to reject consensus GAC advice (see 1511160047).
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will need to continue evolving in coming years to remain relevant for influencing Internet issues, said Internet governance stakeholders Friday during a D.C. Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC-DC) event. IGF’s latest annual meeting, this month in João Pessoa, Brazil, focused on the Internet's importance in economic development and how to connect more users. The 2015 IGF also operated under the specter of efforts to include a 10-year renewal of IGF’s mandate in an outcome document to be drafted at the U.N.’s Dec. 15-16 high-level meeting on its 10-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+10) outcomes.
There’s broad support for some form of Copyright Office modernization, but it’s unclear whether there’s momentum in a particular direction for modernizing the office, particularly on whether to relocate the CO out of the Library of Congress, establish it as an independent agency or fold it into the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), copyright stakeholders told us in interviews. CO modernization has been one of the marquee issues to emerge from the House Judiciary Committee’s ongoing Copyright Act review, with most stakeholders and Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante backing some form of modernization. Pallante earlier this year strongly backed making the CO an independent agency (see 1504290058), while stakeholders have favored proposals ranging from granting the CO more autonomy but keeping it within the LOC, to making it an independent agency or absorbing CO into the PTO.
Improving the functionality of the U.S. copyright system shouldn’t center solely on proposals to modernize the Copyright Office, said Re:Create Coalition-affiliated lobbyists Tuesday during a group event. Fixes to the CO should center on improving its adaptation to modern technologies and narrow the scope of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) Section 1201 anti-circumvention rules so the CO isn’t bogged down with regulatory duties related to that statute, the lobbyists said. The House Judiciary Committee has been exploring a possible modernization of the CO as part of its ongoing Copyright Act review, including examining proposals to move CO out from the Library of Congress. The CO modernization issue has repeatedly been mentioned in House Judiciary’s recent copyright roundtable sessions (see 1511100063 and 1511120049).
The Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) appears to still be on track to release the full text Nov. 30 of its revised proposal for changes to ICANN’s accountability mechanisms despite not being able to report a full executive summary on the revised draft Sunday as originally scheduled, ICANN stakeholders told us. CCWG-Accountability instead released a formal update on the working group’s progress on the draft proposal since ICANN’s October meeting in Dublin. CCWG-Accountability agreed at ICANN’s Dublin meeting to proceed with the sole designator model as the mechanism for enforcing proposed community powers in an expected third draft proposal (see 1510220053). CCWG-Accountability has continued to make progress on its proposal since the Dublin meeting, but “there are outstanding elements that remain to be finalized,” the working group said.
A wholesale revamp of the Copyright Act is unlikely soon, but more piecemeal fixes could be possible, lawyers said Friday during a Practising Law Institute event. The House Judiciary Committee has been doing a copyright law review since 2013, last week holding a pair of roundtables with copyright stakeholders in California (see 1511100063 and 1511120049). Any legislative fix would occur in the midst of ongoing legal battles over whether a terrestrial performance royalty right exists and the nature of fair use, lawyers said at PLI.
The House Judiciary Committee’s priorities for legislation in its Copyright Act review remained largely undefined after the committee’s Tuesday roundtable session at the University of California, Los Angeles, participants in the session told us. The UCLA session, House Judiciary’s third roundtable since beginning its copyright “listening tour” in September, drew Los Angeles’ movie, music and TV industries and others. House Judiciary’s Monday roundtable at Santa Clara University drew a mainly tech sector crowd (see 1511100063), while a September roundtable in Nashville was exclusively pegged at music licensing issues (see 1509220055). Participants in the UCLA roundtable said they remain unsure how House Judiciary will proceed, with several saying committee members made few statements indicating their leanings.
The House Judiciary Committee’s copyright roundtable Monday at Santa Clara University generated significant discussion about the need for fixes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, stakeholders who participated in and attended the meeting told us. The Santa Clara roundtable, the first of two such sessions that House Judiciary plans this week in California, drew prominent interest from Silicon Valley’s tech sector, as expected (see 1511060052). Although content creators and other copyright stakeholders also made a significant impact during the Santa Clara roundtable, a Tuesday roundtable at the University of California, Los Angeles was expected to feature a bigger presence from those stakeholders.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he opposes the current version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), telling participants at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global IP Center event Thursday that the current treaty language doesn’t go far enough to protect U.S. IP interests. The Obama administration released many portions of the full TPP text Thursday, prompting a mixed reaction from tech groups (see 1511050058). Tillis also vowed Thursday to work via the Senate Judiciary Committee to pass patent legislation “that actually satisfies” all stakeholders. “Let’s work hard to get this right,” he said.
Two planned House Judiciary Committee roundtables in California this week on copyright issues are likely to tackle a far wider range of issues, with several stakeholders set to speak at the roundtables telling us Friday they had received limited instructions ahead of the sessions on possible topics that could come up. House Judiciary plans a session Monday at Santa Clara University and a Tuesday session at the University of California-Los Angeles. Neither is targeted at specific copyright stakeholders (see 1511030061 and 1510130058). A previous House Judiciary roundtable in Nashville focused on music licensing (see 1509220055).