Category: Domain Name News

.CA Registry Approves 2010-2011 Corporate Plan – The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has posted its 2010-2011 Corporate Plan as approved by the CIRA Board on June 1. Among the major activities planned for the coming year are: rewriting the registry management system, hosting a Canadian Internet Governance Forum, and undertaking a Community Investment Program…

Here is a selection of recent domain-related items: Neustar, the .us domain registry operator, is proposing to make one- and two-character .us domain names available. It also proposes to launch a .us URL shortener service, and to expand the marketing of .kids.us. New proposals for a Bulgarian TLD name in Cyrillic are being discussed. The…

Nameserver Misconfigurations Cause .DE Domain Disruption – On May 12, several nameservers for Germany’s .de domain were updated with a zone file containing just one third of the actual .de domain data, resulting in incorrect “domain does not exist” responses. The problem started at about 13:30 CEST and was resolved at about 15:45. DENIC, the…

First IDN ccTLDs Active – In an important step in the development of the Internet, the first non-Latin IDN ccTLDs were added to the root zone of the DNS on May 5. The three new ccTLDs are for: Egypt: مصر (Egypt), Saudi Arabia:  السعودية (AlSaudiah), and United Arab Emirates: امارات (Emarat). Under a process approved…

First IDN Top-Level Domains Approved – The ICANN Board has approved the delegation of the first four IDN ccTLDs: рф (xn--p1ai, “R.F.”) representing the Russian Federation, السعودية (xn--mgberp4a5d4ar, “Al-Saudia”) representing Saudi Arabia, امارات (xn--mgbaam7a8h, “Emarat”) representing the United Arab Emirates, and مصر (xn--wgbh1c, “Misr”) representing Egypt. New Second-Level Domain Names Considered for Australia – auDA,…

Some domain name items from the past week: The .fr registry AFNIC has published a paper called “The Secondary Market in Domain Names”. The paper presents a clear description of concepts and issues in this rapidly growing area. CIRA has announced that ArtSchoolReviews.ca is the winner of CIRA’s ShowUsYour.CA video contest. Runners up were DringDring.ca…

ICANN Seeks Comments on .XXX Process Options – ICANN has posted for public comment a report and flowcharts of possible process options concerning the .xxx TLD application by ICM Registry. Also, ICM has written another letter to ICANN indicating that “the Board should vote to execute the registry agreement … without further delay.” However, while…

VeriSign Celebrates 25 Years of .COM – VeriSign has marked the 25th anniversary of the .com domain. On March 15, 1985, symbolics.com was the first .com domain name to be registered. Showusyour.ca Voting Under Way – Voting is under way until Friday, March 26 on video entries to CIRA’s showusyour.ca contest. Canon To Apply For…

ICANN Meetings In Nairobi Conclude – Among the many announcements and resolutions during the ICANN meetings in Nairobi on March 8-12 were the following: The ICANN Board decided to withdraw a proposal for formal Expressions Of Interest (EOI) which would have been carried out in advance of the new gTLD application process. The Board resolved…

ICANN Meets This Week In Nairobi, Kenya – ICANN meetings in Nairobi, Kenya are taking place through Friday, March 12. Two of the main topics are: the status of the new gTLD process including the Expressions of Interest proposal, and consideration of the recent finding against ICANN concerning its 2007 rejection of the .XXX domain…

CIRA Asks Canadians To Showusyour.ca – The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has announced a contest asking Canadians to send in videos to show off their .ca websites. Videos must be submitted by March 15, and public voting on videos begins March 19. .UK Registry Members Vote For Governance Changes – Members of the .uk…

Review Panel Finds Against ICANN Board In .XXX Decision – An Independent Review Panel (IRP) has concluded that in rejecting ICM Registry’s 2004 application for a .XXX top-level domain, the ICANN Board’s decision “was not consistent with the application of neutral, objective and fair documented policy.” The Panel also concluded that its rulings are not…

Afilias Acquires .MOBI Domain Registry – Afilias has acquired mTLD Top-Level Domain Ltd., the operator of the .mobi domain registry, in a private deal. Afilias is the registry operator for .info, and had already been providing registry services to mTLD. There are more than 950,000 .mobi domains registered worldwide. ICANN Publishes Salary Information – In…

ICANN Begins DNSSEC Deployment In The Root Zone – ICANN has announced that DNSSEC deployment in the root zone has begun as of January 27. DNSSEC information is now being served by L-Root, one of the 13 root servers. DNSSEC deployment in the root zone is proposed to be completed by July. (DNSSEC, or Domain…