John: August 2007 Archives
CIRA Election Campaign Forum To Start On Tuesday, August 28 - With the announcement of the final Members' Slate on Monday, August 27, the names of all of the candidates for the upcoming CIRA election will have been announced, and an online Campaign Forum will take place from Tuesday, August 28 until Tuesday, September 4. Voting for the four open Director positions will take place from Thursday, September 6 until Thursday, September 13.
ICANN To Proceed With Test IDN Top-Level Domains - ICANN has finalized an evaluation plan for inserting Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) strings into the root zone. Top-level domain (TLD) names representing '.test' in eleven languages will be inserted into the root zone for testing purposes. The delegation and evaluation is expected to start in September.
ICANN WHOIS Working Group Issues Final Report - The final report [PDF] of an ICANN WHOIS Working Group has been published. The group sought to examine the proposal to use a new Operational Point of Contact (OPOC) in the registration data for each domain, to examine how legitimate interests (e.g. law enforcement) will access unpublished registration data, and to examine whether publication of contact information should be based on the type the name holder (legal vs. natural person) or on the registrant's use of the name. Working Group member Milton Mueller has commented on the report, calling it a stalemate and stating that: "Despite flirting with the kind of compromises and reforms that might actually reconcile privacy rights with identification needs, in the final weeks of the process trust and agreement among the parties broke down completely."
Picks To Click
- ICANN is to enter into an agreement with Iron Mountain for Registrar Data Escrow services.
- Stephen Cleeve loses a dispute against Domains by Proxy and Consumer Protection over stephencleeve.com.
- The June, 2008 ICANN meeting will be held in Paris.
ICANN Begins Consultation on New Top-Level Domains - ICANN has begun a consultation on proposed policies for the creation of new top-level domains, using a report issued by ICANN's Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO). The consultation is especially looking for comments concerning principles, policy recommendations, implementation guidelines, selection criteria, contractual conditions for registries, and procedures for resolving objections to strings or applicants.
.NZ Domain Policies Being Reviewed - The .nz policy on Registering, Managing and Cancelling Domain Names is under review. Some of the proposals, e.g. preventing the registration of domain names that are likely to mislead Internet users, are interesting because they represent "a radical departure from the current 'first come, first served', open registration approach that has been in place in .nz since 1987."
New York Passes Domain Name Law - New York state has enacted a law preventing a person from registering a domain name that is similar to or the same as another living person or business with the specific intent to profit from selling the domain name to that person or business.
Picks To Click
- The top 30 most wasted domains, from succeedwiththis.com.
- An ICANN working group is gathering facts and opinions on domain tasting.
- auDA is reviewing the .au Dispute Resolution Policy.
- The minutes of the June 1, 2007 meeting of the CIRA Board of Directors.
CIRA Members Invited to Show Support for Member Nominees - Members of CIRA are invited to show support for Members Nominees in the upcoming Board of Directors election. In order to be listed on the ballot, each Member Nominee must obtain formal support from at least 20 CIRA members by August 20. A total of 57 Nominees are seeking support. The election itself will take place on September 6-13.
Pre-Registration Begins for CIRA Annual General Meeting - Pre-registration is now available for the CIRA Annual General Meeting to be held in Toronto on September 6. Attendees must pre-register before August 31. David Weinberger, co-author of the Cluetrain Manifesto, will be the guest speaker. The meeting will be webcast, and Members will be able to vote online.
GoDaddy and Afilias to Bid on .US Registry - GoDaddy and Afilias have announced a joint venture called The Domain Name Alliance Registry which has bid on becoming the new registry operator for the .us top-level domain. The bid is in response to a request for quotations issued last month by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The contract for the current .us registry operator, NeuStar, expires in October.
.AU Administrator Imposes Prohibitions on Wildcard DNS Use - auDA, Australia's .au domain administrator, has imposed an interim prohibition on the use of wildcard DNS records in .au and the .au second-level domains. In doing so, auDA is following the ICANN Stability and Security Advisory Committee's recommendation that wildcard DNS records "should not be introduced into TLDs or zones that serve the public, whose contents are primarily delegations and glue, and where delegations cross organisational boundaries over which the operator may have little control or influence".
.UK Registry Conducts Second Governance Consultation - Nominet, the registry for the .uk domain, is updating its Articles of Association and is conducting the second of two consultations on proposed changes. This consultation runs until October 31, and will cover the remaining issues of membership, poll voting, proxies and "legal technicalities".
Picks To Click
