Question: Due to illegal activities on the Internet (e.g. Napster, extremistic political homepages), some politicans want to censor the internet. What is your oppinion to censorship (think of misuse of censorship tools from states, parties, industry)?

Nominee Replies

Andy Mueller-Maguhn - posted on 2000-10-02 00:39:09 I support free flow of information in the global cultural internet, even if this means that human beeings in the different national and cultural spaces will need to develop ways of handling information. To keep the free flow of information up and avoid the misuse of name- and number administrative organizations for policital and/or economic interests, ICANN should give out a policy to enshure openness of the technical infrastructure for normal citizens, not only for commercial or governmentanl organizations. This is not even in all european ccTLD´s a normal right of the citizens now. While ccTLD´s might have their own policies which overrule such an ICANN policy in reality, ICANN should at least define it for the generic TLD´s. Olivier Muron - posted on 2000-09-27 00:48:12 It is beyond the scope of ICANN. Jeanette Hofmann - posted on 2000-09-26 17:03:24 First of all one should always keep in mind that laws and jurisdictions are bound to national territories while the Net is a global space. Governments thus have a hard time to censor things going on outside of the respective territory. More generally speaking, I don't believe in censorship as a means for protecting people or children, constitutions or national security... Alf Hansen - posted on 2000-09-26 04:24:22 ICANN should definitely not censor other party's content on the Internet. I think you are asking about my opinion on censorship in general. My view is that freedom of speech also must apply on the net. As outside the net, the law(s) also apply, and you should not misuse the freedom of speech and break the law(s).