Conference day two of Domain pulse 2012 in Hamburg

Why does the planned international copyright convention ACTA cause a stir in the Internet community? Do we really have to fear that net communication will be increasingly controlled? Is there a risk of overregulation? And which types of access control are technically feasible already today? How does retained data affect everyday life? Which information is recorded and what can you read from it? What would be the consequences for our society?

The second day of the specialist conference Domain pulse, which was held in Hamburg in 2012, provided interesting statements, forecasts and answers to these and other highly topical issues. More than 350 congress visitors listened to the lectures and international-expert panel discussions that have made the largest annual congress dealing with current topics and trends in the field of Internet and domains in the German-speaking territory an established meeting of the industry. In cooperation with the registries administering the country code Top Level domains of Austria (nic.at) and of Switzerland and Liechtenstein (SWITCH), DENIC, the registry of the German country code TLD .de and this year’s host, held the ninth two-day expert congress Domain pulse.

Hot potatoes: Internet governance, access control and copyright in the web
The second day of the conference, 14 February 2012, centered around Internet governance and network politics. In a high-caliber panel discussion representatives from the Board of Directors of the top-level Internet administration body ICANN, experts from the Enquete Commission "Internet and Digital Society" of the German Bundestag and network activists from the political field controversially discussed the positions held by different stakeholders and critically investigated intended measures. They all agreed that taking political decisions that will affect the public down to everyday life all over the world, without consulting civil society as it is currently happening with ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), were questionable and no longer up to date. Instead of reinforcing traditional copyright ideas that are no longer in line with today’s reality of life, the digital age requires a redefinition of the regulatory framework.

Revealing data traces

Which results things like retained data, being just one aspect of network policy, may yield and thus catapult the vision of George Orwell's Big Brother into the present time, illustrated Malte Spitz, member of the Executive Board of the German political party Bündnis 90/DIE GRÜNEN, and the visualization expert Michael Kreil: The analyzation of collected data enters a completely new dimension, if - linked in a visual presentation - they make visible individual movement profiles and thus let the glass human being become reality.

News from the industry

Besides these social policy aspects of the Internet, the agenda of the second day further included topics closer related to the industry itself, such as forecasts and trends for the domain market in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands, compiled in the Registrar Atlas 2012 on the basis of a study executed by the eco Names & Numbers Forum of the Association of the German Internet Industry, and the benefits of agile methods, like Kanban and Scrum, applied in software development and IP operation.

Providers under fire: about obligations and liability claims

Joerg Heidrich, specialist lawyer for IT law and legal counsel from the Heise publishing house concluded the multi-faceted congress with legal considerations: In his presentation about legal risks in the domain environment he illustrated the present legal situation in Germany and some other countries at the practical example of current rulings related to liabilities of registries and providers.

The topics of day one

The first conference day (13 February 2012) focused on the change of the conception of man and the world of work due to the "Internet as the operating system of society", technical approaches and potential development scenarios of the World Wide Web in the next years, measures that can be taken to combat the increasing monopolization of online knowledge, prospects and the current situation with regard to the new address endings in the Internet (Top Level Domains), use patterns of Internet domains and how to get out of the online addiction trap. You will find a brief summary of the most important agenda items a brief summary of the most important agenda items in the press release.

Domain pulse on the Internet

You will find the complete program of the specialist congress and all information about the protagonists involved on DENIC's event website www.domainpulse.de. About one week after the event, we will also make available live recordings as a retrospective of the event.

The next Domain pulse will be held on 18 and 19 February 2013 in Davos, Switzerland.

About DENIC eG

As the central registry, DENIC administers the now more than 14.8 million domains under the Top Level Domain .de and thus provides a crucial resource for users of the Internet. It sees its role as that of a competent, impartial provider of services for all domain holders and Internet users. With more than 120 employees, DENIC creates the foundation through its work for German Internet pages and e-mail addresses to be accessible throughout the world. The about 280 members of the Cooperative are IT or telecommunications businesses based in Germany and elsewhere. Working in cooperation with them and other partners, DENIC is committed to guarantee the secure operation of the Internet and its further worldwide development as a not-for-profit organization. It operates the automatic electronic registration system for its members, runs the domain database for the Top Level Domain .de and the German ENUM domain (.9.4.e164.arpa), manages the name server services for the .de zone at currently 16 locations distributed throughout the world, and renders a considerable contribution to the further organizational and technical development of the Internet in cooperation with international bodies (e.g. ICANN, CENTR, IETF).

For further information please contact:

DENIC eG
Public Relations
Fon: +49 69 27235-274
E-Mail: mailto:presse@denic.de