[Chapter-delegates] Free Trade Agreements: Backdoor to Internet Governance?

[Marcin Cieslak]

While working on my research on ACTA I have found the following passages in
the recent free trade agreements between the United States and Korea
and the US and Oman:

"1. In order to address the problem of trademark cyber-piracy, each
Party shall require that the management of its country-code top-level
domain (“ccTLD”) provide an appropriate procedure for the settlement
of disputes, based on the principles established in the Uniform
Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy.

2. Each Party shall require that the management of its ccTLD provide
online public access to a reliable and accurate database of contact
information for domain-name registrants."

In the U.S.-Korea FTA this is article 18.3 [1], in the U.S.-Oman FTA
this is article 15.3 [2].

There is much more to Internet governance in those documents than this;
I recommend reading both chapters for more details.

I wonder if this really belongs to the bi-lateral free-trade agreements.

To all those participating in the IGF process: was this subject discussed
during the IGF sessions? What is ISOC position on this practice?

--Marcin

[1]

http://www.ustr.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/agreements/fta/korus/asset_upload_file273_12717.pdf

from http://www.ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/korus-fta/final-text

[2]

http://www.ustr.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/agreements/fta/oman/asset_upload_file715_8809.pdf

from http://www.ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/oman-fta

[3] http://www.isoc.org/pubpolpillar/docs/ISOC-NOI-comments.pdf