Reports are emerging from European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG), one of the regional Internet Governance Forum events, of calls for a greater role for the IGF in monitoring Internet governance institutions. During a plenary session held today, "The post-JPA phase: towards a future Internet governance model," there was discussion amongst the European governments and other participants about the role of the IGF in contributing to ICANN's accountability.

Participants identified the creation of a "Dynamic Coallition on ICANN Accountability and International Conformity" at the IGF as a possible solution to deal with the ICANN related issues more strategically, and in conformance with the Tunis Agenda. Although details are emerging about what the new Dynamic Coalition would entail, the suggestion sounds similar to the soft oversight role proposed by the IGP in its 2008 comments to the Department of Commerce during its mid-term review of the JPA.

According to one account, provided by a member of the IGF MAG and relayed to ICANN's Noncommercial Users Constituency, a reason given for such a mechanism was that "although ICANN's constitutional documents and by-laws require it to co-operate with relevant international organisations and to carry out its activities in conformity with relevant principles of international law and applicable international conventions and local law, there are no related formal accountability arrangements and this can be the first step to create this process."

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the China's Ministry of Culture has announced sweeping new regulations for online music. The new regulations attempt to make the Ministry a bottleneck and gatekeeper for all commercial exchanges of online music in China. Foreign-produced music must be approved by censors and checked for copyright compliance before it can be distributed over the Internet. According to the Journal, "Online music distributors will be required to provide written lyrics for each song, translated into Chinese, and documents to prove they aren't infringing on intellectual property rights, the ministry notice said. In addition, companies wishing to provide music download services will be required to apply for an Internet culture license to do so." In other words, this is an attempt to undo exactly what the Internet is designed to do.

Normally the West loves to hold up Chinese censorship as a bad example to the rest of the world. But guess who has expressed enthusiasm and support for the new regulations? You guessed it: The music publishers! Both the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) are quoted in the article as supporting this new extension of Chinese censorship. Remember the satiric poster "when you pirate MP3s, you're downloading communism?" Now maybe we need a new one: "Communists and Copyright owners: perfect together."

The new President of ICANN, Rod Beckstrom, is making the rounds, listening. He's quickly figured out what makes the global institution he is supposed to run tick: the diverse and fractious "stakeholder" groups that cluster around the business and technology of IP addresses and domain names. He's trying to acquaint himself with the people and attitudes of each one and learning about their issues. Registries and trademark lawyers complaining about registrars; registrars complaining about registries; business badmouthing civil society; frustrated Russians, Chinese, European Unionists complaining about the U.S.; the ITU, the RIRs....all have their own angle, their own feuds, their agendas and demands to press.

In Washington Wednesday he made a point of meeting with public interest groups, the noncommercial stakeholders his predecessor went out of his way to marginalize. I was there, along with representatives of Free Press, EPIC, the Media and Democracy Coalition, and OneWebDay. He barely had time to sit down before I presented him with a copy of the Top Ten Myths about Civil Society in ICANN, which I jokingly offered to autograph. He totally one-upped me. He pulled out a copy of Ruling the Root and asked me to autograph that instead. Then he graciously presented me with my very own copy of The Starfish and the Spider, which I insisted he autograph for me. Auspicious exchange.

It was a get-acquainted session; no deals made, no promises sought. But there seems to be some badly needed wafts of fresh air. This new CEO of ICANN thinks his job is to run the organization and not to drive policy, and for now, at least, he's willing to listen. And if anyone can drink from a firehose, it's Aquaman.