John Demco.ASIA Landrush Under Way – The landrush period for the new .asia domain was launched on February 20. A total of 266,663 landrush applications were received within the first 24 hours. The landrush period continues until March 12, and general first-come first-served registration is scheduled to begin on March 26. Public Hearing On ICANN/DOC Mid-Term…
John DemcoResults From ICANN Meetings in New Delhi – The ICANN meetings in New Delhi, India concluded on February 15. Among the resolutions adopted at the Board meeting were: directing staff to continue implementation work on new gTLDs, deciding to deploy IPv6 across ICANN’s own infrastructure, and approving the Framework and Principles on Accountability and Transparency.…
ICANN Meetings Under Way In New Delhi – The ICANN meetings in New Delhi continue until Friday, February 15. Among other topics the meetings will include: a discussion of the review of the Joint Project Agreement between ICANN and the U.S. Government, a workshop on fast-tracking a limited number of IDN ccTLDs, and a workshop…
John DemcoICANN Board Recommends Action On Domain Tasting – ICANN is “looking to effectively end domain tasting”. At its January 23 meeting, the ICANN Board passed a resolution to begin the process of including ICANN transaction fees, presently $0.20 per domain, for all domain registrations including those deleted during the five-day Add Grace Period (AGP). More…
John DemcoGoogle to Block Ads on Kited Domains – Google is planning as of February 11 to begin blocking Adsense for Domains ads from appearing on the websites of kited domains. A kited domain is one which is newly registered, monetized during the five-day grace period–typically by means of a landing page of ads, and then…
John DemcoNominet Foundation Created – Nominet, the registry for the .uk domain, has created the Nominet Foundation, “a charitable organisation that will fund education, research and development initiatives in the UK Internet industry.” The Foundation is expected to receive a first year donation of 5 million pounds, and projects will be invited to seek funding at…
John DemcoICANN Makes Case for More Autonomy – In making its submission in response to the midterm review of the Joint Project Agreement (JPA) between ICANN and the U.S. Department of Commerce, ICANN has made the case that it is meeting its responsibilities under the JPA and that the JPA should be concluded. This would represent…
Worldwide Domain Registrations Top 146 Million – VeriSign’s quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief indicates that the global number of domain registrations has topped 146 million, representing a 31% annual increase. The largest TLDs are .com, .de, .net, .cn, .uk, and .org. The Chinese TLD .cn has surpassed .uk to become the second largest ccTLD. The…
John DemcoTrade Organization Proposed to Tackle Cybersquatting – Technology law expert John Mackenzie of the firm Pinsent Masons has called on businesses to create a trade organization to police the cybersquatting industry. Former Microsoft Domain Manager Charged With Fraud – The manager of Microsoft’s domain name registrations between 2000 and 2004 has been indicted on allegations…
Dell Files Cybersquatting Lawsuit – Dell Inc. is taking a number of domain registrars and companies to court for a combination of typosquatting and domain tasting. Alledgedly the companies were registering and profiting from domain names that were confusingly similar to Dell trademarks, dropping many of them as the five-day registration grace periods were to…
John DemcoNominet Foundation Proposed – The Board of Nominet, the registry for the .uk domain, has proposed the establishment of a charity called the Nominet Foundation “for the purpose of public benefit to UK Internet stakeholders through education, research and the funding of suitable projects”, and has recommended a first year donation of 5 million pounds.…
John DemcoInternet Governance Forum Meeting This Week in Rio de Janeiro – The Internet Governance Forum is meeting this week in Rio de Janeiro. Themes of the meeting include access, diversity, openness, and security. Also, the theme of critical Internet resources, including the management of resources such as the DNS and IP addressing, is expected to…
John DemcoICANN Meets This Week In Los Angeles – ICANN is holding meetings in Los Angeles until Friday, November 2. A website provides updated information, and many events are being webcast. Among the topics to be addressed are: an open meeting of the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) including a presentation on “domain name…
John DemcoICANN Launches Internationalized Top-Level Domain Evaluation – ICANN is launching an evaluation of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) as top-level domain names. The root zone is being augmented with 11 versions of the TLD name .test, and as of October 15 wiki pages will be available with the domain name example.test in Arabic, Persian, Chinese (simplified…
John DemcoFast-Tracking of Internationalized ccTLD Names To Be Explored – ICANN’s Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) is soliciting input from ccTLD managers on the topic of fast-tracking the implementation of some ccTLD Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). According to the document: “It became clear that the development of the required policy for IDN ccTLDs to resolve…
