New gTLD guidebook from ICANN: more protection for your brand
Proposed changes to ICANN‘s Draft Applicant Guidebook for new gTLDs will be discussed at the ICANN meeting in Brussels on June 21st. The fourth version of the guidebook includes changes for brand owners and trademark holders, designed to give greater protection.
ICANN is expecting about 500 applications for new gTLDs (although some could be duplicate applications) and new measures such as a Uniform Rapid Suspension System, a Trademark Clearinghouse and the Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Proposal are being discussed to include the views of trademark holders in new gTLD applications.
Consultancy group Minds+Machines, who assist in new gTLD applications says:
“This means that they’re [ICANN] intending to pass approximately 90% of the applications in other words, ICANN’s intent is not to fail applications by finding trivial faults, but rather to simply make sure that they’re operationally and financially sound.”
You can find more details about the proposed changes to gTLD applications at DomainNews.com.
.XXX a waste of time according to porn industry
The .XXX domain mooted for pornographic sites looks like it will never be launched with the list of detractors getting longer. This time it’s New Zealand porn guru Steve Crow who has entered the fray, saying that .XXX gTLDs would be a waste of time. According to Crow, until such time as porn sites are made to adopt .XXX domains, there will be no filters and just a whole lot of confusion.
The main idea behind the .XXX gTLD would be to make porn filters more efficient, but so far it’s been proposed as a voluntary measure; meaning most sites would stay as they are, or would simply move their content onto .XXX domains and not apply filters. A great move of porn material is not exactly what that industry wants, either, but a decision from ICANN is expected some time this month.
Photo | Flickr
New IDN: Emirates launches .emarat arabic domain
The internet has a new Internationalised Domain Name after the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority officially launched one of the Arab world’s first top level domain names. The TLD is .emarat and it’s expected to open up a whole world of the internet previously difficult to access for many Arab users.
The domain name was approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and it’s difficult to underestimate the effect of what an official Arab domain name, with websites in Arabic characters, will have on Arab speaking communities. President and CEO of ICANN, Rod Beckstrom said:
“Dot emarat will bring multiple benefits. It will help to foster innovation and creativity, and provide better branding opportunities for local companies. It will increase convenience and consumer choice, and generate educational opportunities. It will open up access to the internet to more Arabic speakers, who until now have been blocked by the need to use Latin script (and)… it will also help stimulate the pride that comes with expressing a nation’s cultural identity.”
Source | Anadubawi.com
Photo | Flickr
Ghana Becomes Third African Nation to Register Domains
As Africa continues its quest to catch up with the rest of the Internet world, a company in Ghana called Ghana Dot Com Limited, has become the third in Africa to become an accredited domain name registrar. Accreditation was awarded by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), an Internet oversight organization.
The two other African registrars are Internet Solutions of South Africa and Kheweul of Senegal. The Ghana registrar will now be authorized to register .com, .org, .net, and .info domains. The hope is that this will bring more business to Ghana and surrounding African nations. Ghana Dot Com also aims to encourage more locally-produced websites by people of the Ghana community.
“We hope that this venture will present a platform for hosting more localized content and in local languages to develop the African information resource market,” said Professor Nii Qaynor, Chairman of Ghana Dot Com.
In addition to registering domains, Ghana Dot Com will also host websites. One of their future goals is to become the registrar for country code top level domains (ccTLD) in Africa.
Source: Ghana News Agency
Photo: Flickr
Rod Beckstrom gives keynote speech
Tens of thousands cheered last week at the Russian Internet Governance Forum in Moscow, where Rod Beckstrom gave a keynote speech entitled, “The future of ICANN: Toward a Global Internet.” The ICANN CEO is poised to join the ranks of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy for his amazing rhetoric.
Wait, never mind. But Rod Beckstrom did give a keynote speech. In keeping with the nature of the event, it focused on Russia’s implementation of a Cyrillic IDN. He emphasized how it has increased the rate of Internet adoption in Russia.
Beckstrom also made an astounding revelation:
The numbers are staggering: five of the top ten languages in use on the Internet today rely on a non-Latin script: Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Russian and Korean,in roughly descending order. That represents 647 million users. And another 310 million fall into the broad category of other languages. For the first time,these people will be able to write Internet addresses completely in their own script. IDNs are the greatest advance in the use of names on the Internet since its inception 40 years ago .
Thanks for the heads up. Actually, if it weren’t for ICANN these countries could have had access to IDNs more than a decade ago. You can read the full speech here.
Photo | Flickr
Renowned cryptographer Whit Diffie joins ICANN
ICANN announced this week the hiring of cryptographer Whit Diffie as Vice President for Information Security and Cryptography. The 65-year-old former chief security officer from Sun will use his advanced knowledge to help improve the security of the domain name system.
Diffie is famous for co-writing a paper published in 1976 that has helped scientists better use math to decrypt secret messages. Although it’s hard to say how long the MIT graduate will be hanging around ICANN, I think this addition to the organization’s staff is a very good move. It will go a long ways towards easing fears about Internet security.
Changes at ICANN could put an end to domain privacy services
For years, WHOIS privacy services have acted as a proxy for registrants, using the service’s contact data in place of the registrant’s. Currently customers still own the names even when using a proxy, but an ICANN policy draft could change things:
One central clarification: if a Registered Name Holder licenses the use of a domain name to a third party, a licensee, the third party is not the Registered Name Holder of record (or “registrant”). This advisory also describes under what conditions that a Registered Name Holder is to identify the licensee and to whom.
The full version of the draft can be found here (PDF). Interested parties have until July 9 to comment on the proposal.
If the policy change goes through, WHOIS privacy users may no longer own their domains. This would make proxy registration much less attractive. I doubt it would totally kill the industry, but expect it to have some major repercussions.
Source | Domainnamewire.com
ICANN Launches Russia's Cyrillic TLD
Yesterday, the first Russian Internet domains with Cyrillic characters were launched. There has been talks about this move for quite some time. The preparation received both praise and concern. Now, ICANN has officially assigned the .рф (.rf, for “Russian Federation”) top-level domain to Russia.
What this means is that users in Russia will be able to register domains that end in .рф. It also opens the door for entrepreneurs and domainers to capitalize on the new Russian market. Presumably, there will be thousands of new high-priced domain names available in Russian. Other European countries that use cyrillic characters are expected to join in on the fun, and other languages will soon follow.
Latin had long dominated the domain market, while countries with non-Latin characters were largely excluded. Last week, Arabic characters were introduced into the domain pool, with countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates leading the charge. Supporters of the change believe the Internet will be more accessible to Russians and other non-Latin language countries. Opponents believe it will create separation barriers between the nations.
ICANN COO Doug Brent resigns
ICANN COO Doug Brent published a post on the organisation’s blog yesterday announcing his resignation. Those hoping to hear juicy details about a fierce internal battle at ICANN will be sourly disappointed, however, as Brent is leaving his post for purely personal reasons:
While my engagement in the work of ICANN has made this a difficult decision, the reasons I am leaving are simple. I accepted my role with ICANN in December 2006 with the expectation that I’d commute the 300 miles to Los Angeles four days a week. I did that for twenty months, after which I chose to relocate to Los Angeles – both to do a better job for ICANN, and to see my wife of 27 years every once and a while
. After relocating for what will be more than two years, and much family discussion, we’ve determined that our life is not in Los Angeles.
Since accepting the COO position almost four years ago, Brent has accomplished a number of things. These include a complete overhaul of technology resources and ICANN accountability as well as improvements in remote participation and financial security.
This announcement means that the COO position, as well as Mr. Brent’s $270,000 salary, are now up for grabs.
ICANN cites four registrars for misconduct
Four registrars have come under fire from ICANN for various breaches of contact. Last week, the California agency contacted the four and told them to fix the breaches within 15 days. If the misconduct is not fixed, the registrars will face termination.
Three of the firms– Western United Domains, Inc., Mobiline USA d.b.a. DomainBonus.com, and DropNation.com– were cited for failing to escrow WHOIS data. The fourth, Alantron BLTD, has failed to make its customers’ WHOIS data public.
Let ‘em have it, ICANN. I would love to see this deadbeat registrars get the axe.
Source | Domain Name Wire