Author: John Demco

Worldwide Domain Registrations Reach 128 Million – VeriSign’s quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief reports that the total number of domain registrations worldwide has reached 128 million, a 31% increase during the previous year. The number of .com/.net domain names grew to 69 million, a 28% increase year over year and 6% quarter over quarter. CcTLD…

RegisterFly Domains Being Transferred to GoDaddy – Registrar GoDaddy.com has reached an agreement with RegisterFly, which had had its registrar accreditation terminated by ICANN, to transfer RegisterFly’s portfolio of domain names to GoDaddy.com. ICANN has welcomed the announcement. .TRAVEL Registry Gets Reprieve – SEC documents indicate that Michael Egan, president of Theglobe.com, has lent $250,000…

ICANN Reports RegisterFly Deal To Transfer Domains – ICANN reports that it “has been advised of a deal to transfer all names in RegisterFly’s management from RegisterFly to an existing accredited Registrar with a demonstrated record of customer service. This would be a quick and effective solution to many of the problems that registrants are…

ICANN Posts Proposed 2007-2008 Budget – ICANN has posted its proposed budget for 2007-2008. Expenses are budgeted to be $US 43 million, an increase of more than $13 million over the current budget year’s projected year-end total. Owner of .TRAVEL Registry Reports Financial Difficulties – Theglobe.com, which acquired .travel registry operator Tralliance in 2005, states…

ICANN Seeks Public Comment On Its Performance – ICANN is seeking community feedback about its performance. Of particular interest to ICANN are comments on transparency, accessibility, accountability, operational performance, policy development, international participation, its multi-stakeholder model, technical coordination, and dispute resolution. Comments will be received until June 5. CIRA Criticizes ICANN Performance Consultation – CIRA…

MarkMonitor Releases Brandjacking Index – MarkMonitor has released a quarterly report called the Brandjacking Index which measures the effect of online threats to brands. The study found cybersquatting posed the greatest threat, and also identified others including false association, pay-per-click fraud, domain kiting, objectionable content, unauthorized sales channels, and phishing. .MOBI Domain Registrations Surpass 500,000…

CIRA Calls For Nominations For Board Election – The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has a issued a call for individuals to be considered by the Nomination Committee for the Board of Directors election to be held this September. The last day for applications to the Nomination Committee is Monday, May 21. The 2007 election,…

More Registry Price Increases – Following VeriSign’s registry price increases announced for .com and .net, Public Interest Registry and Afilias have announced registry-level price increases for .org and .info names, respectively. The increases for each are 2.5%, from $US 6.00 to $6.15, and will take effect in October. Individual registrars will decide whether or not…

ICANN Board Rejects .XXX Domain Application – By a 9-5 vote with one abstention, the ICANN Board has rejected the .xxx domain application from ICM Registry. The decision came nearly seven years after the proposal was first made. ICM Registry is reportedly considering court action. VeriSign To Raise .COM/.NET Registry Fees – VeriSign has announced…

ICANN Terminates Registrar Accreditation Agreement For Registerfly – ICANN has issued formal notice of termination of its accrediation agreement with registrar Registerfly.com. According to the letter, Registerfly.com will no longer be allowed to operate as an ICANN-Accredited Registrar effective March 31. Whois Task Force Issues Final Report – The Whois Task Force has sent its…

Update On Registerfly – During the past week, ICANN has posted in its blog several updates on the RegisterFly situation, and many unhappy customers have posted followup comments. On March 8, a U.S. District Court judge handed control of RegisterFly back to Kevin Medina, the original CEO, resolving a dispute over ownership of the company.…

Canadian Privacy Commissioner Issues Finding On Registrant ID Requirements – In his blog, Michael Geist has pointed out a finding by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in which the Assistant Commissioner comments that it is appropriate for a domain registrar to require personal identification in order to change the administrative email address for a domain…

ICANN Puts Registrar On Notice – ICANN has posted a Feb. 21 letter to registrar Registerfly.com giving formal notice of several breaches in Registerfly’s accredition agreement with ICANN. The letter provides information on the breaches, and additional comments have been posted to the ICANN Ombudsman’s blog. ICANN may give notice of termination of the registrar’s…

ICANN Publishes Revision to Proposed .XXX Agreement – ICANN has posted for public comment a revised appendix to the proposed .xxx registry agreement. Acccording to the preliminary report of the recent ICANN Board meeting, “a majority of the Board has serious concerns about whether the proposed .XXX domain has the support of a clearly-defined sponsored…

Root Servers Attacked – On Feb. 6, root nameservers were flooded with queries due to a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. Reportedly three of the 13 root server clusters were significantly affected, but the attack went largely unnoticed by users. VeriSign to Strenghen its Internet Infrastructure – VeriSign has announced an initiative to expand…