Back in 2003, there was a race to pass spam legislation. California was on the verge of passing legislation that marketers disdained. Thus marketers pressed for federal spam legislation which would preempt state spam legislation. The Can Spam Act of 2003 did just that... mostly. "Mostly" is where litigation lives. According to the Can Spam Act preemption-exception... more
The new year is upon us and it's time for our annual look at CircleID's most popular posts of the past year and highlighting those that received the most attention. Congratulations to all the 2016 participants and best wishes to all in the new year. more
Two events, which made headlines in the digital world in 2016, will probably frame the Internet Governance Agenda for 2017. October 1, 2016, the US government confirmed the IANA Stewardship transition to the global multistakeholder community. November 2, 2016, the Chinese government announced the adoption of a new cybersecurity law which will enter into force on July 1, 2017. more
The Respondent's cry of pain in AXA SA v. Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc. / Ugurcan Bulut, axathemes, D2016-1483 (WIPO December 12, 2016) "[w]hat do you want from me people? I already removed all the files from that domain and it's empty. What else do you want me to do???" raises some interesting questions. "A," "x," and "a" is an unusual string of letters but unlike other iconic strings such as "u," "b" and "s" and "i", "b" and "m" for example that started their lives as the first letters of three-word brands AXA is not an acronym. more
A new age of openness is coming upon us. At least that's what we're being told. For instance -- "The reign of closed solution suites is over, shifting to the rise of open, heterogeneous software ecosystems." Maybe it's my 30 years in the information technology business (how many people remember Thomas-Conrad ARCnet hardware?), but I'm not convinced. It's worth taking a moment to consider the case. more
As I predicted more than three months ago, 2016 turned out to be a record year for domain name disputes, including under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). That's according to statistics from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the only UDRP service provider that publishes real-time data on domain name disputes. WIPO's statistics show 3,022 cases in 2016 -- an increase of almost 10 percent from 2015. The previous most-active year for domain name disputes was 2012... more
This post provides an overview of The 2016 New gTLD Year in Review infographic, reflecting on some of the intriguing highlights of the gTLD industry. The data analyzed within the infographic is based on the following: New Top Level Domains (TLDs) contained in the data set reflect open TLDs and exclude single registrants such as brands; For greater insight, TLDs have been separated into four quartiles or 'tiers' with tier 1 being the top 25% and tier 4 being the bottom 25%... more
Verisign's spent the best part of 2016 putting out warnings. The .COM operator and domain industry heavyweight highlighted its Q3 earnings report with a stern "Ending Q4 '16 Domain Name Base expected to decrease by between 1.5M to 2.8M registrations from the end of Q3 '16". A forecast which the company said was based on "on historical seasonality and current market trends." As 2016 drew to a close, the downturn seemed to materialize... more
A shift has occurred in agriculture: farmers are not only relying on clouds but increasingly, on the cloud. With the click of a mouse, farmers can find out which fields need water and chemical inputs in real time. The use of this technology, called precision agriculture, is helping farming become more productive, environmentally friendly and is revolutionizing how our food is cultivated. more
The oft used term "the Internet of Things" (IoT) has expanded to encapsulate practically any device (or "thing") with some modicum of compute power that in turn can connect to another device that may or may not be connected to the Internet. ... The information security community -- in fact, the InfoSec industry at large -- has struggled and mostly failed to secure the "IoT". This does not bode well for the next evolutionary advancement of networked compute technology. more
Privacy/proxy services carry no per se stigma of nefarious purpose, although when first introduced circa 2006 there was some skepticism they could enable cybersquatting and panelists expressed different views in weighing the legitimacy for their use. Some Panels found high volume registrants responsible for registering domain-name-incorporating trademarks. Others rejected the distinction between high and low volume as a determining factor. more
The dot brand observatory is a research program on brands who registered their name at the top level of the internet domain name system -- the DNS. The research looks at the registration of second level domain names by brands, but also the use of these domain names to provide services and experience to customers. This research is carried out every other month, and we illustrate hereafter a certain number of highlights of our December analysis. more
A complaint under the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS) may -- like the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) -- include more than one domain name, but few URS complaints have done so. Now, one new URS case just changed everything. In the largest URS case ever filed, an expert at the Forum ordered the suspension of 474 domain names in a single proceeding. more
Choosing the right domain name is like choosing a Trademark, it has to be taken seriously because it is a long time image investment. If new gTLDs have brought new options to those in charge of creating a name (precision, availability, novelty) and registering its (their) domain name(s), they also brought the possibility to make a terrible mistake when choosing the right extension for a domain name. more
There's a new virus infecting the Internet that's more pernicious and more dangerous than any virus that has gone before. It's the first example ever of a hybrid Internet-human virus and probably the universal common ancestor of all hybrid Internet-human viruses to come. The condition the virus leaves behind is increasingly well recognised and goes by the understated label of "post-truth" but the virus itself is so far anonymous and so I propose we name it after the effect it has on those it has infected who, put simply, can no longer distinguish reality from fiction, hence the reality virus. more
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