By the same logic, the UK owns the international postage system. The Queen should be empowered to shut that down at will.

Seriously, it’s hard to doubt that the US could completely crash the Net if it chose. But it would be an act of infamy that would damage the economies of the rest of the world far worse than the banking crisis. How much more bad press do they need?

It’s not a straightforward issue. On the one hand, most of us would accept that there is value in providing an incentive to create clever things that ultimately benefit many people. That’s the public good argument for copyright and patents. On the other, our culture and our technology are built on the work and ideas of others and controlling people’s access effectively controls our development as a species.

These are important matters that need a global consensus. What I’m seeing at the moment is an attempt to enclose the commons of ideas for the benefit of a few and to detriment of us all. That’s been the case for a century at least, but the arrival of the Internet has pushed things to a whole new level.

That brings me to ACTA, the treaty being negotiated in secret by our government and others, which is at least partly about the interaction of copyright and the Internet. I’ve railed against the secrecy around ACTA before, because it prevents the ordinary people whose lives will be affected from having a say in it.

There have been some remarkable revelations about ACTA in the last few days. Firstly, there have been three leaks. The text of the Internet chapter, an analysis of some countries’ views on transparency of the agreement, and an analysis of each country’s negotiating position on the Internet chapter of the draft ACTA agreement. We don’t know where the leaks are coming from, but it’s clear that many people negotiating the agreement are unhappy with the insistence of secrecy coming from (we now know) the US, South Korea and Denmark.

Nat Torkington has analysed the New Zealand positions from the latest link. New Zealand’s negotiators are pushing for clarity, for reasonableness and for transparency. Good on them. It looks as though New Zealand is making its view more felt than many other countries. Even so, what we end up with, of course, is not just up to New Zealand.

People in our government are listening about the lack of transparency. Our negotiators have just issued a call for submissions on some points of the Internet chapter ACTA by 31 March. This, coupled with the leaks, offers ordinary people a chance for some kind of say. So does the PublicACTA event to be hosted by InternetNZ on April 10th, right before the next round of ACTA negotiations which are to be held here in Wellington the following week.

It’s good that we have found out more about ACTA – even if it is mostly through unacknowledged “leaks”. It’s good that New Zealand is pushing for transparency. We need to empower our negotiators and those in like-minded countries to reject the extreme positions that some of the other countries are taking. Do consider sending a submission, even if it’s just “the current model works well, don’t change it”. I’ll write some more detailed points and publish them here well before the deadline.

However, it’s still appalling that a treaty that will affect everyone is being negotiated in secret, with an agenda being pushed by one industry based mainly in one country which won’t let the secrecy be lifted for fear that other countries’ citizens won’t let them stay in the negotiations.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant. We’ve had a glimpse of it. Let’s throw the curtains wide.

It’s not my purpose here to rehearse the arguments against software patents in New Zealand, but to discuss how to go about submitting your views to Parliament for its consideration. It’s something I have done a couple of times, and I have also been, in the distant past, an official helping a Select Committee, so I have seen both sides.

The first step is know that a Select Committee is calling for submissions on a topic. If it’s an issue you care about – and I wouldn’t bother writing submissions about a topic I didn’t care about – you would likely know already that a Bill was before the House. Normally Bills, as draft Acts of Parliament are called, are referred to Select Committees soon after they are first introduced. The Select Committee will then typically call for public submission on the Bill. You can find out about this, including which Bills are open for submissions, on Parliament’s website.

Once you have decided to write a submission, spend some time thinking of the points you want to make. Don’t just rail against something, but think about what you want the Committee to do and why you want it do that. Write those down as clearly and concisely as you can. If it would help the Committee, comment on specific numbered sections of the Bill, and tell the Committee what you think those sections should say instead. Keep it short and to the point.

My experience went like this. I wrote a submission – about 2 pages making my points and urging the Committee not to allow software patents in New Zealand, and asking it for the opportunity to present orally to the Committee. I was later emailed and then telephoned by the Clerk of the Committee who arranged a time for me to appear in front of it.

The Committee met in the Maori Affairs Committee Room in Parliament, which is room full of beautiful carvings. There were about 8 member of the Committee present and handful of advisors, plus a few others waiting to deliver their submissions. I was told I had 15 minutes. I did not read out my submission, but rather I made some parallel points which illustrated and backed up my arguments. I was questioned on specific points by the Committee, and it was clear that they were very engaged on the detail of what they were considering and were asking me to help them clarify parts of that.

I was impressed by the dedication they were showing. Most of the members were clearly engaged in what is, frankly, pretty dry stuff with a lot of legal and technical detail to get right. The way the Chair handled the submitter after me was very impressive – she managed to get right to the heart of what seemed at first to be a rambling complaint, and revealed what seemed to be a genuine problem with the Bill (outside my area of expertise so I can’t comment on the detail).

Overall it was in interesting and empowering experience. The Select Committee does appear to be doing its best to consider every point of view. I hope it gets a law that we can all live with.

The Internet is decentralized – it’s pretty famous that it was designed that way to resist a nuclear attack. But there is still some central administration – that looks after things like IP addresses and domain names.

Q: IP addresses are the numbers we have talked about before.

A: Yes, they are deeply unsexy. Only another IP number could love one. But domain names generate rather more interest.

Q: Remind me – what’s a domain name, again?

A: Like radionz.co.nz or google.com. They are human readable names – human memorable might be a more relevant term, because they are what we all use to get access to web sites and email addresses across the Net.

Q: And ICANN get to control those names? Who appointed them?

A: Well that’s a long story. Ultimately it came out of the US government, but it’s moved a long way beyond the US government now – ICANN is a not for profit with people from around the world contributing to it – and its trying to break its last bonds with the US government. But for now, what we need to know is, that ICANN controls domain names internationally and InternetNZ controls the ones that end in .nz under and agreement with ICANN.

Q: ICANN’s chairman is from New Zealand, right?

A: That’s right – the chair is a Wellington lawyer called Peter Dengate Thrush. You had him on this programme late last year when he became chair. Peter has succeeded Vint Cerf, the father of the Internet, as ICANN chair – that’s a great honour for Peter and New Zealand, and it’s also big shoes for him to fill. From what I’ve seen at the last couple of ICANN meetings, Peter’s doing a great job.

Q: Why do you go to ICANN meetings?

A: I don’t go to all of them by any means. There are three a year, always somewhere interesting. We held one in here in Wellington about two years ago which is still regarded as one the best ever. But I’ve been doing a paid job for ICANN over the last few months which has taken me to their last two meetings. The one I’ve just returned from was in Paris.

Q: Sounds tough!

A: Business travel’s not all it’s cracked up to be. You are there to serve the person who’s paying your bill – anything else you can get to do is incidental. And it’s pretty tough on your family. But having been to a few ICANN meetings when I was president of InternetNZ, and having hosted one here in Wellington, it’s good to catch up with the same crowd of people elsewhere in the world.

Q: Surely the Internet is supposed to reduce the need for people to meet face to face?

A: Don’t you believe it! The Internet is a tool for people to communicate. And it’s fantastic at doing that – but people communicate far better if they get to meet each other in the flesh from time to time.

Q: What does ICANN do?

A: It coordinates policy about domain names and IP numbers – that sounds amazingly dry as dust, but it’s really core to the way we experience the Internet. It’s ICANN which determines that country-based domain names end in two-letter codes representing the country.

Q: Like .nz

A: Yes, exactly. Or there are the so-called generic names like dot com, which don’t relate to any specific area. And, at this ICANN meeting, that has all been changed. ICANN has voted to allow a far, far wider range of names. So, soon, perhaps we’ll be seeing names anz.bank or citycouncil.wellington, or may be just plain google – without the dot com.

Q: Can anyone get on of these?

A: I think it’s going to be fairly expensive to register a name up at that top level – I’ve heard sums of the order of hundreds of thousands being tossed around. That will obviously the numbers rather but there will still wind up with hundreds or thousands or top level names rather than the dozen or so plus the country codes that we have now. So this decision is quite far-reaching and it will change the way we view domain names.

Q: What are ICANN meetings like?

A: There are three a year, always somewhere new. They move around the planet. We had an ICANN meeting here in Wellington a couple of years ago – I was the local host for it. We filled the town up. Typically you get 500-1,000 people at them, although the Paris one was bigger – lots of the meeting participants brought their partners and families.

Q: That’s an awfully big meeting!

A: They don’t all meet in the same room at the same time. There are a lot of different strands to ICANN. There is a meeting for people interested in country code domains like .nz, for instance. That goes for a couple of days. There’s a meeting for government people – that’s about four days worth and, unlike most ICANN meetings, its closed to the public. And there are other interest groups like intellectual property, not for profits, you can imagine. And at the core of the whole thing is the ICANN Board, which is what Peter Dengate Thrush chairs.

The meetings use some clever technology. There’s an online transcript on a giant screen. So, while you are talking, what you are saying is being typed and scrolls up on a big screen behind you. That’s very impressive to watch, and it’s being done by a couple of people with very fancy keyboards that they press several keys at one on. And there’s simultaneous interpretation – there are little booths in the back of the meeting rooms, and each booth has one or two interpreters in. Each interpreter speaks one language and translates from every other language. I like watching them – interpreters from the more physically expressive languages like Spanish, you see them waving their arms around as though they were the ones talking, not just interpreting. And everyone in the audience has a headset they can put on so they can dial up the translation. Or, if you speak English, you just watch the online transcript which comes up in English regardless.

Q: Because the stenographers are listening to the interpreters?

A: Exactly. And it’s a great atmosphere generally. There are people from literally allover the world, and they come to cooperate. The Internet only works because people cooperate – and of course the Internet lets them cooperate. And ICANN is the Internet writ small, with all the tensions, interests, sometimes fierce debate, that you get on the Internet – but it’s also fundamentally about getting together to jointly solve problems and make the world a better place through improving the Internet.

Q: And you spent all your time in meetings?

A: Most of it…but maybe I did get out for the odd hour or two! Paris looks much better than I remember it. All those weather-stained buildings have been cleaned and now seem to be carved out of glowing orange sandstone. And Musee Rodin and Musee d’Orsay are just the places to go if you like that kind of art. And even the airport is a work of modern art, if only marginally functional.

Links

As always, you can discuss this broadcast at it.gen.nz.

International Internet body ICANN, it’s Wellington-based chair, and its announcement about new top level domains.

Another reason to go to Paris

I don’t think I’m going to have time to see much of Delhi, unfortunately. It’s also a lot colder here than I believed it could be – I’m far too cold sitting round in a business suit. Most people have winter woolies on!

ICANN is the body that runs the core of the Internet – the domain name system and address allocations. Until yesterday, it was chaired by Vint Cerf, one of the Internet’s inventors. Big shoes to fill, although I am sure Peter will prove equal to the task.

Peter has been involved in Internet governance since the early days. He is one of the founders of InternetNZ, and like me is a former president of that body. Peter has worked with ICANN since before there was an ICANN, and with the rest of the New Zealand contingent he has played a big part in moulding ICANN into what it is today.

I hope Peter gets a few days to bask in the vote of confidence he has received through his election before he gets down to work.

Congratulations Peter.