Legal Informatics & E-Governance as tools for the Knowledge Society LEFIS Seminar, Reykjavik (Iceland), July 12-13, 2007 Oleksandr Pastukhov MPhil (Koretsky Institute) LL.M. (Northwestern) The Use of Alphabets Other Than Latin (Roman) on the Internet and Its Impact on Building a True Knowledge Society

Introduction Global Reach: 64.8%of global Internet audience is English-speaking (2004) Global Reach: 64.8%of global Internet audience is English-speaking (2004) comScore Networks: ~14  of the 694 mln Internet users worldwide are in the U.S. (2006), down from ~2/3 a decade ago comScore Networks: ~14  of the 694 mln Internet users worldwide are in the U.S. (2006), down from ~2/3 a decade ago 45 mln of ~255 bln people living in the U.S. don’t speak English at home (2000 census) 45 mln of ~255 bln people living in the U.S. don’t speak English at home (2000 census) ITU: 25  of the world’s “wired” population come from China, Japan, India, S. Korea (2006) ITU: 25  of the world’s “wired” population come from China, Japan, India, S. Korea (2006)

Understandable Addresses Needed! American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII): 26 letters, 10 digits, dot[.] and hyphen [/] American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII): 26 letters, 10 digits, dot[.] and hyphen [/] Others: Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Thai, Hindi, Han ideographs, … Others: Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Thai, Hindi, Han ideographs, … Language variations, dialects, reforms Language variations, dialects, reforms Diacritic signs: [ é], [å], [ñ], [ç], [ü], … Diacritic signs: [ é], [å], [ñ], [ç], [ü], …

Technical Solutions Unicode: ~1 mln characters – 1991 Unicode: ~1 mln characters – 1991 Dr. Tan Tin Wee – 1998 Dr. Tan Tin Wee – 1998 Multilingual Internet Names Consortium (MINC) – June 2000 Multilingual Internet Names Consortium (MINC) – June 2000 VeriSign: IDN Testbed (32 scripts covering 350 languages) – Nov VeriSign: IDN Testbed (32 scripts covering 350 languages) – Nov Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF): 4 RFCs – Dec. 2002, March 2003 Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF): 4 RFCs – Dec. 2002, March 2003

Unicode 3.2 Cyrillic Fonts

Progress i-DNS.net and RegTime.net launched.ком,.нет,.орг – May 2001 i-DNS.net and RegTime.net launched.ком,.нет,.орг – May 2001 RegTime.net launched.ру – June 2003;.бг,.уа – coming soon RegTime.net launched.ру – June 2003;.бг,.уа – coming soon i-DNS.net and CNNIC launched “.zhongguo” (“.china”), “.gongsi” (“company”), “.wangluo” (“networking”) – Oct i-DNS.net and CNNIC launched “.zhongguo” (“.china”), “.gongsi” (“company”), “.wangluo” (“networking”) – Oct ICANN 28th Annual Meeting (San Juan, Puerto Rico) – June 25-26, 2007 ICANN 28th Annual Meeting (San Juan, Puerto Rico) – June 25-26, 2007

Problems Access to knowledge Access to knowledge Cultural sovereignty/chauvinism Cultural sovereignty/chauvinism Cultural imperialism & trade expansion Cultural imperialism & trade expansion Politics: PRC v. Taiwan & Diaspora Politics: PRC v. Taiwan & Diaspora Internet fragmentation: PRC v. ICANN Internet fragmentation: PRC v. ICANN Cybersquatting: kcepokc.py – xерох.ком Cybersquatting: kcepokc.py – xерох.ком Resolvement – RFCs are not enough Resolvement – RFCs are not enough

Looking Forward “Mixed” IDNs: “Mixed” IDNs: “Internationalized” “Internationalized” Whois operational in any language Whois operational in any language Internet governance: the future of ICANN Internet governance: the future of ICANN ADR: UDRP for personal names, trade names, geographical indications? ADR: UDRP for personal names, trade names, geographical indications?

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