John Demco
ICANN Approves .XXX Domain – Meeting in San Francisco on March 18, the ICANN Board of Directors formally approved ICM Registry’s application for the .xxx top-level domain, authorizing ICANN staff to execute the proposed registry agreement.
The current application was submitted in 2004. It was turned down by the ICANN Board in 2007, and subsequently accepted in 2010 following an Independent Review Panel’s finding against ICANN.
ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) informed the Board that no GAC members actively supported .xxx, that some members were emphatically opposed, and that “an introduction of a .xxx TLD into the root might lead to steps taken by some governments to prohibit access to this TLD.”
Members of the adult entertainment community in opposition to the domain
staged a rally outside the ICANN hotel and participated in the
public forum.
The new domain will also need to be entered into the root zone, a process overseen by the U.S. government.
New gTLD Timeline Published – The ICANN Board and its Governmental Advisory Council (GAC) spent much of their time at the ICANN meetings in consultation over the new gTLD program. There remain many differences. ICANN has published a new timeline leading to the proposed approval of a final Applicant Guidebook on June 20 at the ICANN meetings in Singapore.
Picks To Click
- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton spoke to the ICANN community on March 16.
- The last day for entries for the .CA Impact Awards is Friday, March 25. Winners receive $5000.
- CIRA’s 2011 Annual General Meeting will be held in Vancouver on September 20, and online voting for the Board of Directors Election will take place on September 21-28.
- CIRA will host the ICANN Meeting in Toronto on October 14-19, 2012.
Timeline
- Sun, Mar 13 – Fri, Mar 18: ICANN meetings in San Francisco, USA
- Fri, Apr 1: .org and .biz registry fees increase
- Wed, Jun 8: World IPv6 Day
- Sun, Jun 19 – Fri, Jun 24: ICANN meetings in Singapore
- Fri, Jul 1: .info registry fee increases
- Tue, Sep 20: CIRA Annual General Meeting in Vancouver
- Wed, Sep 21 – Wed, Sep 28: CIRA Board of Directors election