[Chapter-delegates] FYI - ISOC statement about on Internet blocking measures in Catalonia, Spain

[Jordi Iparraguirre]

Dear all,

putting aside any discussion (this is not the place) about political
viewpoints, censorship, fairness and measure of judge, violation of
basic human rights such as opening postal mail, etc, and going strictly
to the technical point covered by the ISOC statement, which I fully support:


- ISOC-CAT is one of the oldest ISOC chapters world wide, older than any
other one in the Iberian peninsula. It was created with the scope to
promote the ISOC values and as a meeting point in the Catalan speaking
area, hence its name.


- Regarding .cat, I've been its CEO during its first 7 years. ICANN was
not very enthusiastic about the .cat proposal. It was difficult for them
to understand why a linguistic and cultural community was applying for a
TLD. The rumours around ICANN's suspicion that we were applying for a
TLD focused on cat lovers might be more a reality than a legend.

Even more, these letters of no objection were not required in the bid,
but ICANN wanted a double check. And we got them.

In any case, the issue is not the TLD, nor what a Government might say
about it. During its existence .cat has shown technical leadership,
being among the first TLDs to offer IDNs and be IPv6 ready; or being the
first gTLD DNSSEC enabled. Also social leadership, reinvesting part of
its benefits in social-technical projects presented by the community, an
idea adopted by some big ccTLDs later on. And of course a model for geo
and city TLDs.

The issue is where Dr. Crocker puts the focus answering a question in
the last LACNIC.
https://youtu.be/Fx9h13Rq18g?list=PLU6Q4ZhHN2Q6b0gGJozLs1_smGO1thJCb&t=2057

Some people see a nice and shiny button to "close" the Internet, but
blocking is never the solution, as it was and it's being demonstrated
during this week. The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes
around it.

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right
to say it.

Have a great weekend,
jordi