© ELIZABETH A WILLIAMS 2003 ISBN 0-9750841-0-0 THE GLOBALISATION OF REGULATION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM: DOMAIN NAMES AND A NEW REGULATORY ECONOMY by ELIZABETH A WILLIAMS Bachelor of Arts (ANU) – 1985 Master of Arts (UC) – 1998 Thesis submitted in accordance with the regulations for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Information Security Research Centre Faculty of Information Technology Queensland University of Technology December 2003 CERTIFICATE OF ACCEPTANCE Approved by Chairperson of Supervisory Committee Professor William J Caelli School of Software Engineering & Data Communications Faculty of Information Technology Queensland University of Technology Program Authorised to Offer Degree Signed: ………………………………………………………………… W J CAELLI Date: ………………………………………………………………… KEY WORDS Globalisation of regulation, the domain name system, Internet governance, information technology, critical infrastructure protection. ABSTRACT This is a multidisciplinary work that encompasses considerations of politics, regulation and technology. It considers the impact of technology on the way in which, politically, we are able to regulate technology and how we devise policy to guide that regulation. The added complication is that Internet technology knows no jurisdiction. The rulemaking established in recent years is globally applicable and is carried out without the direct involvement of national governments in the key decision making processes, particularly in the environment under examination here which focuses on the management of the technical resources of the Internet. In formulating the hypothesis that grounds this work, I have focused on two things. Firstly, that technical regulation has political, and therefore, policy implications. Secondly, that where there are policy implications with direct commercial impact, we can expect to see the vigorous involvement of corporations as they manage the environment in which they do business. These two critical conditions have driven the formulation of policies and procedures for making decisions about Internet governance. They have also driven the actual decisions which have been implemented, to a greater or lesser degree of success. i This research contributes to the scholarship in four significant ways. The first is that the Internet Domain Name System (IDNS) and its governance present a new perspective on the discussion of the globalisation of business regulation. The data used to support the analysis has not been collated or examined previously and is presented here to illustrate the extension of the literature and to frame the hypothesis. The second is that I have found that national governments have, despite ongoing control within their national jurisdiction, little effective influence over the management and governance of the Domain Name System (DNS) at an international level. Thirdly, I have found that corporations have significant power to determine the way in which policies for the management of the technical resources of the Internet are discussed, developed to consensus policy positions, implemented and reviewed. Finally, the research has opened up new lines of inquiry into the rise of a new class of bureaucrats, the cosmocrats and their cosmocracy, on which further research continues. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Key Words ...................................................................... i Abstract.......................................................................... i Table of Contents............................................................iii Supplementary Material ................................................... v Glossary ....................................................................... vi Statement of Original Authorship.................................... xliv Acknowledgements .......................................................xlv Published Papers......................................................... xlvii Manuscripts Accepted for Publication ..................... xlvii Manuscripts Submitted and Under Review .............. xlvii Presentations .............................................................xlviii Professional Experience................................................xlviii Section A – Thesis Mechanics............................................ 1 Chapter One - Introduction............................................... 9 Chapter Two - Literature Search & Conceptual Framework .. 27 Section B – Core Research ............................................. 59 Chapter Three – Numbers to Names or IP vs IP® .............. 60 Chapter Four - ICANN and the Shifting Fulcrum of Regulatory Power.......................................................................... 89 Chapter Five - The Scramble for Regulatory Relevance: Domain Name System Governance and the New Role for Governments...............................................................119 iii Chapter Six - Cosmocracy: Corporate Strategy and the Development of Internet Governance Models ...................147 Chapter Seven - Internet Governance in Australia: Modelling Self-Regulatory Structures in the Domain Name System....187 Chapter Eight – Conclusions and Future Research.............213 Section C – Appendices.................................................223 Appendix One – ICANN Meeting Raw Data ...........................I Appendix Two – ICANN Meeting Business Participation ........XI Appendix Three – Governmental Advisory Committee Meetings 1999-2001...................................................... XV Appendix Four – Proportional Representation Chart.........XVIII Section D – Bibliography ............................................... XIX Section E – Supplementary Material.................................. LI iv 1 SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL A. FRAMEWORK FOR GLOBAL ELECTRONIC COMMERCE, 1 JULY 1997 B. US DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE - REQUEST FOR COMMENT ON DNS ADMINISTRATION, 2 JULY 1997 C. US DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE - GREEN PAPER – A PROPOSAL TO IMPROVE THE TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT OF INTERNET NAMES AND ADDRESSES, 20 FEBRUARY 1998 D. US DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE - WHITE PAPER – STATEMENT OF POLICY ON THE MANAGEMENT OF INTERNET NAMES AND ADDRESSES, 5 JUNE 1998 E. MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN ICANN AND DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, 25 NOVEMBER 1998 F. GOVERNMENTAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE OPERATING PRINCIPLES, 25 MAY 1999 1 These documents are included in their full form because they are now difficult to find on-line and have not been published in hard copy format. The documents are in the public domain and specific permission to reprint the documents is not required. v 2 GLOSSARY 3COM US network hardware and software corporation that provided financial support (US$175,000 loan in 1999) for ICANN during start-up phase. AARNET Australian Academic Research Network, established under the auspices of the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee (AVCC) to link the major Australian tertiary education institutions and other research bodies such as the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation. AARNet was sold to national telecommunications carrier Telstra after the emergence of the Internet. AARNet managers were influential in technical development of the Internet within Australia and overseas. Those managers and the AVCC also played a significant role in transition of the .au ccTLD regime from one of privately held, publicly funded Internet architecture to publicly managed privately commercialised assets. JEAN-FRANÇOIS ABRAMATIC ICANN Director 1999-2000, Dr Abramatic was formerly Director of Development & Industrial Relations at France’s INRIA, Associate Director of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, author of the French Government’s report Le Développement Technique de l’Internet (http://mission-dti.inria.fr/) and Chair of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). He was selected for the ICANN Board by the Protocol Supporting Organization. AMADEU ABRIL I ABRIL ICANN Director (selected by DNSO); formerly member of DNSO Names Council and gTLD-MoU Policy Oversight Committee. Mr Abril teaches law, has a private legal practice (including work as Legal & Policy Advisor to domain name registrar Nominalia) and was an executive with the European Commission. ACSNET Electronic network established by the Australian Computer Society (ACS), a professional organisation for the IT sector. ACSNet was superseded by the Internet; transition from a closed to a public network was reflected in ACS involvement in the establishment of .auDA and its precursors. 2 This is comprehensive collection of key terms, corporations and individuals. This dramatis personae has not previously been published and provides a guide to a wide variety of sources throughout the work. vi ADDRESS SUPPORTING ORGANIZATION (ASO) The ICANN Address Supporting Organization is one of three Supporting Organizations (that is, entities that assist, review and develop recommendations on Internet policy and structure regarding specific areas of ICANN’s activity and that facilitate diverse international participation in technical management of the Internet). It names three Directors to the ICANN Board. ERICK IRIARTE AHON Appointed as a member of ICANN At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) in 2003, Mr Ahon is a computer law specialist from Peru. He was a member of the DNSO UDRP Review Task Force and Transfer Task Force, a legal advisor for the administrator of the .pe ccTLD and member of the Non Commercial Constituency in the DNSO. He was a founder of the Peruvian Cybertribunal and Electronical Magazine of Computer Law (REDI). http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/tor-udrp/Erick.Iriarte.bio.html