huridocs-tech Constitutional Convention for the Intenet?

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Date sent:              Fri, 23 Oct 98 18:23:06 CDT
From:                   Rachel Anderson <rachel@benton.org>
Subject:                Communications-related Headlines for 10/23/98

 A KIND OF CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE INTERNET
 Issue:  Internet

 Legal observers are saying that the Internet Corporation
 for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a unique form of
 government for the global computer network. Over the next
 few weeks, Government officials and representatives from
 various groups will try to decide the structure and rules
 of the new organization. "This is a constitutional
 convention in a sense," said Jonathan Zittrain, a law
 professor at Harvard University and executive director of
 the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, the school's
 cyberspace research center. "That's why there's such great
 interest" in ICANN and its birth, he said. David Post, a
 law professor at Temple University who specializes in the
 legal issues of cyberspace, added: "If there is going to be
 this one entity that has a great deal of power, you'd have
 to say that the process of deciding how that power will be
 exercised is constitution-making. This absolutely is a
 critical moment." (See draft rules at
 <http://www.iana.org/bylaws5.html>) [SOURCE:  New York
 Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Carl S. Kaplan
 <kaplanc@nytimes.com>]
 <http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/10/cyber/cyberlaw/23law.html>


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