Re: PAB [ooblick@NETPOLICY.COM ...]

Kent Crispin (kent@songbird.com)
Fri, 26 Jun 1998 22:48:06 -0700


On Sat, Jun 27, 1998 at 02:20:31AM +0000, William Allen Simpson wrote:
> I'm sorry, but as I'm only a member of this (PAB) list and IETF list,
> I'm having rather a hard time following the acronymns. I don't
> understand who/what/where is GIAW and IFPW. Anyone willing to
> elaborate?
>
> If I remember correctly, DNRC was the organization of the pirates?

No, the "Domain Name Rights Coalition" is quite different from that.
I don't follow their position very closely, but I believe its
fundamental nourishment is a dislike for the unification of domain
names and trademarks. At that level I have a fair amount of sympathy
for their position, since I have personal reservations about the
whole notion of "intellectual property"...but maybe I don't
understand their position, after all.

Anyway, the idea GIAW (Global Incorporation Alliance Workshop, I
think) was hatched very soon after the WP came out -- I think Tony
Rutkowski mentioned it in his congressional testimony less than a week
later, before anyone had ever heard of it. Bob Shaw found the early
stages of their web site, and the list of participants looked like a
who's who of MoU haters. That raised hackles; and the web site
quickly started changing.

The GIAW disappeared, and the IFWP (International Forum for the White
Paper) rose from the ashes. There are now supposed to be three
meetings, in different regions of the world, one apparently hosted by
EuroISPA, and the other in Asia? I forget.

The significance of all these meetings -- there is the INET thing,
and another one hosted by some facet of the EU, and there will
probably be others -- is hard to judge. People are very excited by
the notion of "internet governance", but assignment of numbers and
names may be a fairly feeble reality next to the ideal of an
independent cybernation that seems to fuel a lot of this...

-- 
Kent Crispin, PAB Chair			"No reason to get excited",
kent@songbird.com			the thief he kindly spoke...
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