News Briefs

ICANN Getting More Control Could Mean Major Reform

Kieren McCarthy reporting in the Register: "Domain name overseer ICANN is likely to go through a radical reorganization if it wants to be given more control of critical internet functions, currently run under contract from the US government. Two recent papers -- one from independent legal experts hired by a group looking into the contract's transitioning, and a second from an internet governance think-tank -- have both highlighted the benefit to making ICANN a true member-led organization, with the internet community given real powers to effect change." more

Why ‘Trust Me’ is a Bad Model for Internet Governance

"Trust me" is not a model for good governance of the Internet or anything else, says Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). "With the U.S. government relinquishing control of Internet governance, ICANN -- the global nonprofit organization responsible for managing key Internet functions -- will be operating independently without serious checks and balances..." more

China Accused of ‘Weaponizing’ Global Internet Users to Launch DDoS Attack

Activists battling internet censorship in China are reporting that they have proof of a massive online assault on their websites by the Chinese authorities. The attack, which began last Thursday, targeted two GitHub projects designed to combat censorship in China: GreatFire and CN-NYTimes, a Chinese language version of the New York Times. more

ISOC’s DNSSEC Deployment Map Available In Global Internet Maps (Interactive)

Internet Society's DNSSEC Deployment Maps are now available as part of a larger set of Global Internet Maps from its annual Global Internet Report. The map is based off of the 5 stages of DNSSEC deployment that the organization tracks as part of the weekly DNSSEC deployment maps generated. more

Dot-Sucks TLD Accused of Predatory, Exploitative and Coercive Practices

Kieren McCarthy reporting in the Register: "The intellectual property constituency (IPC) of domain overseer ICANN has formally asked the organization to halt the rollout of the controversial .sucks top-level domain, due to start on Monday." more

Plentyoffish Media Inc. Fined $48,000 for Alleged Violation of Canada’s Anti-Spam Law

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today announced that Plentyoffish Media Inc. has paid $48,000 as part of an undertaking for an alleged violation of Canada's anti-spam legislation. more

M3AAWG Releases Anti-Abuse Best Common Practices for Hosting and Cloud Service Providers

Jointly published by the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2C) and the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group, the new document outlines proven activities that can help Web hosting services improve their operations and better protect end-users. more

Internet Grew by 4 Million Domains in 4Q 2014, Reaching 288 Million Worldwide

The fourth quarter of 2014 closed with a base of 288 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains (TLDs), an increase of four million domain names, or 1.3 percent over the third quarter of 2014, according to Verisign's latest Domain Name Industry Brief. Registrations have grown by 16.9 million, or 6.2 percent, year over year. Total country-code TLD (ccTLD) registrations were 134.0 million domain names, a 1.5 percent increase quarter over quarter, and an 8.7 percent increase year over year. more

Canadian Regulator CRTC Issues $1.1 Million Penalty to Compu-Finder for Spamming

Neil Schwartzman writes: "The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's (CRTC's) Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer today issued a Notice of Violation to Compu-Finder, which includes a penalty of $1.1 million, for breaking Canada's anti-spam law. Compu-Finder has 30 days to submit written representations to the CRTC or pay the penalty. It also has the option of requesting an undertaking with the CRTC on this matter." more

Video Interviews from ICANN 52 in Singapore

CircleID in collaboration with the team from Dyn Inc. and ICANNWiki, brings you the following video interviews conducted by Susan Chalmers at ICANNWiki during the ICANN 52 meetings in Singapore (8- 2 February 2015). more

Google Wins .APP New gTLD Auction for $25 Million

Michael Berkens reporting in TheDomains.com: "The new gTLD .APP sold for $25 Million to Google today in a ICANN Last Resort Auction which I think is very good news for the new gTLD program in general. This is the highest price paid in an ICANN Last Resort Auction. It looks like Google was willing to pay over $30 Million based on the info published by ICANN..." more

37.9% of Global Population Using the Internet, Says Internet.org Report

A new study by Facebook-led Internet.org, called "State of Connectivity: A Report on Global Internet Access," takes a look at the current state of global internet connectivity, who’s connected, who’s not and why. The paper uses existing data and incorporates its own new findings to examine internet penetration and barriers to further growth. "By early 2015, 3 billion people will be online. This is an incredible milestone, but it also means that only 40% of the world’s population has ever connected to the internet." more

Hearing on “Preserving the Multistakeholder Model of Internet Governance”

Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will meet this Wednesday at 1000 local time to grill Chehade and others on the plan to remove the US government from the current triumvirate responsible for managing changes to the DNS root zone under the IANA arrangements..." more

AFNIC: 2014 Was the Year of the Big Bang for nTLDs

AFNIC has released an article providing a global overview of TLDs in 2014 and some thoughts about market prospects in 2015 and 2016. more

10th GigaNet Annual Symposium - Call for Proposals

On Monday, 9 November 2015, the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) will hold its 10th annual symposium in João Pessoa, Brazil. The event will take place one day before and in the same location as the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF). more