CIRA 2007 Election Results Announced - The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), registry for Canada's .ca domain, has posted the results of its 2007 Board of Directors election. The successful candidates were Paul Andersen, Rick Anderson, Ron Kawchuk, and Rick Sutcliffe.

ICANN Approves New Top-Level Domains - At its September 11 meeting, the ICANN Board approved the delegations of .kp (North Korea), .me (Montenegro), and .rs (Serbia). Furthermore it resolved that a transition from the .yu domain to the .rs and .me domains be completed by September 30, 2009. Also, Delhi was selected as the venue for the February, 2008 ICANN meeting, and the .aero, .museum, and .post domains were discussed especially concerning case-by-case versus common registry agreements.

.DE Registry CEO Returns - DENIC, the registry for Germany's .de domain, has announced the appointment of Sabine Dolderer and Dr. Jörg Schweiger as CEO and CTO respectively. Dolderer returns as CEO after having left DENIC in March, 2007 due to "differing views as to how DENIC ought to continue to develop in future."

Picks To Click

• Russia's .ru domain registry has surpassed one million names.
• The old .su (Soviet Union) domain continues to be used.

Cybersquatting Lawsuits Being Filed - An International Trademark Association (INTA) article states that INTA members Dell, Microsoft, Time Warner, Wal-Mart and Yahoo intend "to pursue individual legal actions against a total of 22 cybersquatting operations to provide a more secure online experience and to prevent the violation of genuine trademark rights."

Internet Commerce Assocation Announces Domain Name Code of Conduct - The Internet Commerce Association has announced a code of conduct to guide its members "in conducting their domain name investment and development activities with professionalism, respect and integrity." Issues covered include: protection of intellectual property rights, domain name tasting, domain name kiting, strict adherence to Internet fraud laws, access to accurate WHOIS data, lawful content, respect for human suffering and victims of tragedy, and protection of names of persons.

German Registry Puts New Computer Centre Into Operation - DENIC, the registry for Germany's .de domain, has announced the start of operation of a computer centre in Frankfurt, Germany, the first of two new computer centres from which .de domains will be administered in the future. Interestingly, the other computer centre is to be located in another country: in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

.MOBI Registry to Auction Premium Domain Names - dotMobi, registry operator for the .mobi domain, will be making several hundred premium .mobi names available through a series of three online auctions. The names are from a pool of approximately 5,500 set aside by dotMobi prior to the registry's launch a year ago. The first auction of 100 names commences on Wednesday, September 26 and will last for one week.

Picks To Click

• A BBC article on the benefits of the .tk domain to the island nation of Tokelau.
• Ireland's .ie registry is relaxing the rules for personal .ie domain names.
• The results of the CIRA Board of Directors election are scheduled to be posted on or before Friday, September 21.
• ICANN posts an issues paper to assist in developing its 2008-2011 Strategic Plan.
• ICANN posts the schedule for its upcoming Los Angeles meeting on October 29 to November 2. The meeting will include a tribute to Vint Cerf on Tuesday, October 30.
• The September edition of the ICANN Magazine is available.
• Patrik Faltstrom maps the locations of the root servers. (Thanks to CircleID.)

Draft .AU Policy Recommendations Released - A panel reporting to auDA, the Australian domain name administrator, has been reviewing the policy framework for .au domain names, and has issued draft recommendations. The main recommendation is that .au should not be opened up to direct second-level registrations, i.e. that registrations should continue to be of the form domainname.com.au, domainname.org.au, and so on. Among the other recommendations are that auDA should be allowed to suspend a domain name without notice at the request of an Australian regulatory or law enforcement agency, and that registrants should be allowed to license domain names for 1, 2, or 3 year periods rather than for a fixed 2 year period. Concerning the sale of domain names by registrants, the panel has not formed a draft recommendation and is calling for further comments. A public consultation will take place until October 19, and the panel is due to provide final recommendations in November.

Nevada Man Impersonated Lawyer to Steal Domain Names - From a Wired article: A Nevada man pleaded guilty Thursday to his plotting to steal domain names from their legitimate owners by impersonating a California intellectual property lawyer and send threatening letters to domain name owners in hopes of convincing them to turn over the domains to him.

Picks To Click

• The CIRA Board election continues until Thursday, September 13.
• "Proceed with Extreme Caution", an article on domaining by Bret Fausett.
• The .mobi registry launches an upgraded version of its mobile Web test tool.

CIRA Board Election To Start On Thursday, September 6 - The CIRA Board of Directors election runs from Thursday, September 6 until Thursday, September 13. The official list of candidates was posted on August 27, and the online campaign forum closes this Tuesday, September 4.

CIRA AGM Set For Thursday, September 6 in Toronto - CIRA's Annual General Meeting will take place in Toronto on Thursday, September 6. CIRA Members may participate in person or online via webcast; CIRA will be raffling doorprizes to Members who attend in person. AGM documents have been posted. The keynote speaker is David Weinberger, whose most recent book is called "Everything Is Miscellaneous".

Worldwide Domain Registrations Reach 138 Million - VeriSign's quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief indicates that the global number of domain registrations has topped 138 million. This represents a 31% annual increase. The largest TLDs are .com, .de, .net, .uk, .cn, and .org. Earlier this year, China's .cn registry launched a price promotion in which the first-year registration fee was RMB1.00 (approximately $CDN0.14) and experienced a 402% annual growth, pushing .cn to be the third largest ccTLD. The number of ccTLD names grew to 51.5 million, a 36% annual growth rate. The number of .com and .net names grew to 73 million, a 27% annual growth rate.

Picks To Click

• The number of .eu domain registrations has surpassed 2.5 million.
• Switzerland's .ch domain registry has recorded its one millionth domain name.
• Bowring and Co. Inc. loses a dispute over bowring.ca.
• Milton Mueller comments on the responses to ICANN's new gTLD consultation.
• The .uk registry opens consultation on the introduction of a default transfer process to its Dispute Resolution Service,
• The .asia registry is partnering with ICANNWiki to assist in evaluating Pioneer Domains Program applications. The program is for trademark holders, and precedes the sunrise registration phase.
• auDA is reviewing the .au domain's community geographic domain names policy, for names registered under .au's eight state and territory 2LDs.
• The Swiss .ch registry is discontinuing its ENUM trial.