John Demco
World Conference on International Communications Commences – The World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) is taking place until December 14 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The meetings are being held under the auspices of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nations agency. The conference’s formal purpose is to review a treaty known as the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs), last revised in 1988. However, controversy has arisen over the possbility of trying to place some aspects of Internet governance under the ITU’s control.
New .COM Contract Approved: Registry Price Increases Restricted – VeriSign has announced that the U.S. Department of Commerce has approved the renewal of VeriSign’s contract with ICANN to operate the .com domain registry through Nov. 30, 2018. The current registry-level pricing of USD 7.85 per domain registration will continue, with VeriSign no longer having the right to four price increases of up to 7% each over the contract’s six year term. However, price increases may be allowed, e.g. due to security or stability threats, with the Commerce Department’s prior approval.
GAC Files Early Warnings on New gTLD Applications – ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) has published 242 Early Warnings on individual new gTLD applications. The warnings were filed on November 20. According to the GAC, “Early Warnings mainly consist of requests for information, or requests for clarity on certain aspects of an application.”
Picks To Click
- Canada’s .ca domain has surpassed 2 million registrations.
- The Czech Republic’s .cz domain has reached 1 million registrations.
- auDA, the Australian domain name administrator, is reviewing the .au Dispute Resolution Policy.
- WCIT-12: An Opinionated Primer and Hysteria-Debunker, by Jack Goldsmith.
- ‘Father of the internet’: Why we must fight for its freedom, by Vinton Cerf.
Timeline
- Sun, Jan 13: Registration available for .ca domain names with French characters
- Sun, Apr 7 – Thu, Apr 11: ICANN meetings in Beijing