Summary of arguments and positions in favour and against the certification of Internauta Colombia

Arguments in favour

Arguments Against

-Some members of Internauta Colombia are known to be involved in Internet Governance issues, advocating on behalf of internet users and they are active in their community.  

                              
-Some LACRALO members have met members of Internauta Colombia at the ICANN meeting held in Cartagena in 2010. They had an active participation in the meeting.

-The representative of Asociación Colombiana de Usuarios de Internet (ACUI) has raised the fact that its organization is legally incorporated under the Colombian laws and they have the exclusive right to use the name which Internauta Colombia is also intending to use in breach of ACUI’s rights. He argued that this new organization, Internauta Colombia, Asociación Colombiana de Usuarios de Internet, doesn’t have right to use this name. He also argued that the Colombian legislation is addressed to avoid names that conduct to confusion or disloyal competition between the consumers. He stated that the use of this name can affect them.

-In response to the argument that Internauta Colombia is not an organization legally incorporated under the Colombian laws, some LACRALO members answered that under the new ALAC rules there is not a requirement that the organizations applying to be certified as ALS must be legally incorporated.

-This organization has been working with other Colombian organizations inserted in the Colombian community, such as enRedo (which is already an ALS in LACRALO) and ISOC Colombia. They have also participated in the Colombian IGF.      

-In response to the argument that some members of Internauta Colombia are at the same time members of the enRedo (organization accredited as ALS in LACRALO), some LACRALO members answered that it is not true. They said that one member of Internauta Colombia was close to enRedo and it is not the point under discussion. Also, some members of LACRALO organizations are ISOC members, so if this If this criterion were applied to all member, this would impede people to freely associate and collaborate in different organizations at a time. Furthermore, there are several members of LACRALO belonging to more than one ALS.

-Some LACRALO members claimed that the primary contact of Internauta Colombia is also Board member of enRedo (ALS of LACRALO) and that the programs that Internauta Colombia submitted as their own, are programs that have already been organized by enRedo from a time ago, thus having in Internauta Colombia as a facade to have more control over the RALO by duplicating institutions without really having different programs and members but instead the same set of people and programs. enRedo is inactive in LACRALO almost two years ago.             

-In response to the argument of the members of this organization have been involved in the creation of ISOC Colombia, a representative of another ALS from Colombia argued that in the practice, ISOC Colombia is not constituted yet.                                                                                            

-In response to the argument that some members of Internauta Colombia have been involved in the Colombian IGF, a representative of a Colombian ALS asked the clarification about who those members are, because he and the representative that raised the conflict about the name of the organization, have been involved in the Colombian IGF from the beginning and they didn’t know who those members are. There was no answer to that question.         

-In response to the argument against the organization name (Internauta Colombia, Asociación Colombiana de Usuarios de Internet), some LACRALO members argued that it is not a LACRALO business to decide about a trademark issue which is a matter to be solved by local authorities.

-In response to the argument of the decision of a trademark issue is not a LACRALO business, some LACRALO members argued that the problem is that two organizations with the same or similar name from the same country could produce confusion of the Colombian Internet end users and also that LACRALO should not contribute or abet to infringing any organizations rights.

-In the application, Internauta Colombia expressed that they have a group in a social network similar than Xing with 50 members around, but the last movement of this social network was in January previous to the constitution of this organization (in March), so it is -at least- suspicious that this group hasn’t really have any movement other than to justify Internauta Colombia’s existence.

-Some LACRALO members have raised that with the information shared it seems this is a kind of "ghost" organization of other organization which is not active and not oriented to LACRALO.