Internationalized Domain Names: Legal Issues and Potential Abuses Michael YAKUSHEV cctld.ru

1. Internationalized Domain Names: Legal Issues and Potential Abuses Michael YAKUSHEVcctld.ru

2. IDNs: Legal Issues and Potential Abuses • IDNs as new objects of legal regulation: role of ICANN • IDNs and International Public Law • Domestic legal regulation • Potential abuses

3. New objects of legal regulation: IDNs • Who is authorized to create/distribute new top-level domain zones? • Why ICANN? Do new/old domain zones constitute ‘limited national resources’? What is the role of ITU? • Who can be the recipient (=administrator) of the new TLDs? • IDNs = identifier for the state? Nation? Language? • .РФ=> ok! • .CША => ? • Should the new TLDs reflect the practice of the existing domains? • Why two-letters only? “УКРАIHA” ? • What is the legal difference between gTLDs and ccTLDs? • Can top-level IDNs be used for other geographical indications? • . РФ=> ok! • .MOCКВА =>? • .CAT=> ok! • .TAT=> ? • s

4. New objects of legal regulation: IDNs • Known issues: • Role of ICANN as the ‘source’ of new domain zones is questioned (as well as it role in other aspects) <= lack of international consensus on Internet Governance (global level) • Perception (in certain countries): TLDs = ‘national resources’ • Lack of long-term strategy on development of DNS and the requires legal framework • Solutions: • Clear and widely acceptable definition of ICANN’s role in creating and developing new domain zones (in line of overall concept of Internet Governance) • International (Universal) Treaty • Elaboration of the indicative strategy for DNS (like ‘DNS-2015’, ‘DNS-2020’ etc.) => to have legal framework prepared to implement by each stage • Possible merger of gTLDs and ccTLDs => TLDs of different types • TLDs cannot be treated as ‘limited national resources’

5. IDNs: what should be solved on international level • Geopolitics • Acceptability of the new TLDs by other countries • No ISO guidance • Second-level domains registration • Harmonization of registrations policies (jointly accepted restrictions?) • E.g. obscene lexical components in the same alphabet system for different languages (different IDNs) • Intellectual property (e.g. trademarks) protection • Trans-border disputes resolution • Internationalized WHOIS • Importance for law enforcement activities • “Techno”-legal issues • Adaptation of software (e.g.browsers) and hardware (e.g.keyboards) • IDNS -> internationalized e-mail applications

6. IDNs: what should be solved on international level • Known issues: • Lack of international public law regulation in ‘sensitive’ cases • UN experience on geographical borders • Lack of any bilateral/multilateral framework for harmonization • Need for new standards, including WHOIS • Solutions: • Accurate and comprehensive discussions and analysis of new IDNs in ICANN before their implementation • Sponsoring bilateral and multilateral mechanisms based on three-stakeholders principles • Best practices welcome! • WIPO involvement • Research and development for new standards => should be acceptable for all • Overall conclusion: no ‘uniform’ or ‘universal’ solution is possible, each issue should be analyzed and solved separately

7. IDNs: Domestic regulation (Russian example) • “National resource” issue • Who (which state body) is ‘responsible’? Which legal acts should be approved before? • Legal status of registry/registrars • Protection of ‘state interests’ • Reserved names for the state institutions • Reserved names for territorial (federal) units • Municipal level should be included? • Intellectual Property Protection • Sunrise mechanisms • Avoidance of cyber-squatting • Harmonization of .RU, .РФ. and.SU procedures and practices • ‘Better’ identification of domain administrators • Creation of ‘National E-mail System’ for Russian citizens based on cyrillic DNS

8. IDNs: Potential Abuses • Nothing new from legal point of view…. • Non-Latin symbols do not change the nature of legal relationship • Поживем – увидим… • The Future will show

9. Thanks for your attention!