%0 Journal Article
%T Government Regulation of Dot-ca Domain Name Space
%A Marc Watkins
%J University of Ottawa Law and Technology Journal
%D 2005
%I 
%X [Abstract] Long gone are the days when the Internet¡¯s Domain-Name System could be administered by a few computer and network scientists acting as self-appointed or matter-of-fact trustees of what was then a military research project funded by the U.S. Government. With the Internet becoming a commercialized communications network for the masses, resources and responsibilities for the Internet¡¯s key function of naming and addressing servers around the world had to shift from private individuals or university departments to new organisations dedicated to the task of allocating and managing domain names. During this transition the new organisations became more and more aware of the powers they inherited. Naturally, one did not have to wait long for national governments to take a stand on the issues involved. While there seems to exist an abundance of legal opinion in regard to the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers, the U.S.-based guardian of the Internet¡¯s (official) name space, relatively little attention has been paid to the question of regulation by national governments when it comes to ¡°their¡± country code Top-Level Domains. This article tries to help fill the gap by taking a closer look at the Canadian dot-ca Top-Level Domain-Name and the Canadian Government¡¯s current and possibly future regulatory regime. Emphasis is put on answering four key questions: What can be regulated? How can it be regulated? What is the current situation in Canada? And should there be regulation in the first place? ***** [R¨¦sum¨¦] Nous sommes bien loin de l¡¯¨¦poque o¨´ le syst¨¨me des noms de domaine Internet ¨¦tait g¨¦r¨¦ au moyen de quelques ordinateurs par quelques scientifiques de r¨¦seau, en tant que simples fiduciaires autod¨¦sign¨¦s de ce qui ¨¦tait alors un projet de recherche militaire financ¨¦ par le gouvernement am¨¦ricain. L¡¯Internet ¨¦tant devenu un r¨¦seau commercial de communications de masse, n¨¦cessairement les ressources et les responsabilit¨¦s en mati¨¨re des fonctions Internet cl¨¦s de la d¨¦signation et de l¡¯acc¨¨s aux serveurs partout dans le monde sont pass¨¦s des individus priv¨¦s et des d¨¦partements universitaires ¨¤ de nouveaux organismes sp¨¦cialis¨¦s dans l¡¯attribution et la gestion des noms de domaine. Durant la transition, ces nouveaux organismes ont pris peu ¨¤ peu conscience des pouvoirs dont ils h¨¦ritaient. Tr¨¨s rapidement, bien s r, les gouvernements nationaux sont intervenus afin de se prononcer sur les questions en jeu. Bien qu¡¯il semble y avoir une abondance d¡¯opinions juridiques concernant la Soci¨¦t¨¦ pour l'attribution des noms de domaine et num¨¦ro
%U http://www.uoltj.ca/articles/vol2.1/2005.2.1.uoltj.Watkins.145-172.pdf