.CM domains soon to be available for registration

For years Cameroon’s government leased out the .cm domain to Agoga.com. Because .cm is a common typo of .com, the company set up a system where if you entered any address ending with .cm, it took you to a webpage filled with ads. Agoga made millions from this deal, profiting from domains like google.cm and weather.cm.

Now Cameroon has decided to end this special deal with Agoga and will open up the .cm domain to everyone. Starting July 15, you will be able to preorder a registration free of charge. Public registration begins on August 1. On August 4, the most lucrative .cm domains will be auctioned off. Normal registrations will cost £217 ($350 USD) for two years.

There is no doubt that Cameroon is trying to make money from typosquatters, crafty individuals who register common misspellings of popular websites in hopes of getting free traffic. Typosquatting often constitutes trademark infringement and is finable by up to £186,234 ($300,000 USD) in the United States.

Cameroon has made a very irresponsible decision regarding its domains. Many trademark holders will suffer as a result of the country’s attempt to make a quick buck. As developing countries build web infrastructure, their governments ought to learn to be more responsible.

Source | Tech Crunch
Photo | Flickr

Africa may lead the world in IPv6 adoption

With IPv4 addresses set to run out by 2011, Internet administrators have been pushing for a switch to the new IPv6 system. Unfortunately, very few data centers have adopted the new system because of past investments made in IPv4 and the cost to upgrade.

This is why some industry experts believe Africa, a continent that has made very little investment in IT infrastructure, may lead the world in IPv6 adoption. As Calvin Brown, director of Uniform, the company that administrates the .co.za domain, put it:

The rate of IPv6 adoption in Africa seems to be higher than in other regions. It seems that this may be an area where being behind can help us get ahead

In Kenya, IPv6 has been running on the .ke registry servers since 2006. Other countries, such as Ghana, have held forums and training seminars in an attempt to educate server administrators about the need to abandon IPv4, but few have made the switch to IPv6.

One of the benefits of starting late in any situation is the ability to gain from already acquired knowledge. Though Africa may be late to the technology game, it can learn from the West’s past mistakes and build its infrastructure with the newest equipment.

Source | Computer World

Photo | Flickr

Africa Backs ICANN

In a statement regarding ICANN’s current partnership with the Department of Commerce, a representative group of African registrars and government leaders officially announced its support for the organization.

The group believes that Africa has benefited and will continue to benefit from the relationship.

The Internet’s sound and effective coordination should continue to be operated along the criteria and procedures that have given to the Internet its stability and secure operation, said the group.

There is concern that if ICANN is fully privatized or put under different control, African countries might be given a smaller piece of the pie, so to speak. This is a stark change in opinion from a year ago, when representatives from the continent wanted international governance for the organization.

In a place where obtaining network stability yet alone government stability is still a challenge, the group has good reason to fear exploitation. Africa needs to do everything it can to make sure its IT resources are preserved for future generations.

Source: IDG

Photo: Flickr