[At-Large] 9th Circuit Court ruling on ICANN Contract.

[Avri Doria]

Hi,

I tend to see it as a freedom of speech/expression of argument, so am sorry, but will not stop phrasing it as such.

It is not for ICANN, you, me or j-random government out there to tell people what forms of speech and expression they may use and may not use.  In many places it is difficult to find a platform that  will not turn you into the police for expressing opinions that are contra the government.  Being able to register one's own 2nd level name, and to do so in a country that that is not your own (i.e. a country where due process is respected and meaningful, as opposed to being a farce as it is in so many places) and to keep from having personal details published where a tortuous government can find them, may be the best if not only way for some to have freedom of speech.  

Looking at it another way, saying that there is Blog therefore you don't need second level names is almost as if we were saying people don't have a right to publish political essays outside their own country, because the have the right to send letters to their local newspaper.

If individuals anywhere are allowed to have 2nd level names, then individuals everywhere have that right  as well, and  have the right to have their private details protected by due process of a law that lives up to the requirements in the treaties and covenants such as those referred to as the International Bill of Rights (IBR e.g. UDHR, ICCPR).

a.



On 11 Jan 2011, at 17:02, Evan Leibovitch wrote:

> The answer to this is a thundering "so what?"
> 
> The right to free speech is not accompanied anywhere by the obligation of
> anyone to provide a soapbox. Never has been -- just as the inability to find
> a publisher does not constitute censorship.
> 
> I'd you want to talk about media concentration or the difficulty to be
> heard, go ahead. But that's no longer a free speech argument.  So please
> stop phrasing it as such.
> 
> - Evan (sent from my Android phone)
> 
> On 2011-01-11 4:50 PM, "Karl Auerbach" <karl at cavebear.com> wrote:
> 
> On 01/11/2011 11:25 AM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> 
>> I continue to be bewildered by the baseless assert...
> Sure - but lack of a domain name is a handicap.
> 
> By way of analogy - One can speak freely without owning a TV network
> (such as Fox News), but it sure makes your voice a lot louder if you
> have one.
> 
> Similarly one can speak on the net without a domain name, but that means
> giving up a lot of decibels in the form of search engine listings,
> historical persistence, reputation, cross-linkage with other forms of
> speech/media, control of the message, etc.
> 
> And by forcing individuals to give up their power of being anonymous
> with a domain name that one thereby gives greater power to aggregate
> structures - largely corporations - that can easily launder their
> identity through any number of intermediaries.
> 
> It's sort of like stuffing a rag into the mouths of individuals on the
> internet while giving a megaphone to others.
> 
> 
> --karl--
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