Domain Names

Failure in ICANN’s Governance Framework

The legitimacy of the ICANN multistakeholder model and its governance framework are facing an existential threat requiring immediate attention. The recently announced results of the ICANN Nominating Committee highlight how the ICANN Board is captured by "affiliated" directors, which threatens its independence and ability to act for the public interest. more

UDRP and Article 92(b) of EUROPEAN COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 40/94

It has been over a year since I posted "The Non-Parity of the UDRP", how little did I know then compared to now! Since that posting, the corporations and their lawyers have given me a crash course in the law and I have learned much. There are many tricks that corporations will play on a domain name registrant in order to silence criticism of the corporation and to violate the registrants right of freedom of expression without frontiers. The UDRP Administrative Proceedings is one such trick... more

The Continued Rise of Phishing and the Case of the Customizable Site

We’ve noted in previous CSC studies that phishing continues to be an extremely popular threat vector with bad actors and shows no signs of subsiding in part, because of the COVID–19 pandemic and the rise in popularity of remote working. Indeed, the most recent figures from the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) show that the numbers of phishing attacks are higher than ever before, with the quarterly total of identified unique phishing attacks exceeding 1 million for the first time in Q1 2022, and over 600 distinct brands attacked each month. more

Anatomy of a Domain Name Land Rush

The launch of a new or repurposed Top-Level Domain (TLD) is always surrounded with speculative activity. Some domainers will register domains in the new TLD with hopes of getting rich quick. Others will do so because the same domain in .com is worth a lot of money. And then there are the developers who see the prospect of building a carefully branded website in the new TLD. And with all those proposed new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs), this cycle will be repeated. But what does a Domain Name Land Rush look like? more

Name Collision Mitigation Requires Qualitative Analysis (Part 3 of 4)

As discussed in the several studies on name collisions published to date, determining which queries are at risk, and thus how to mitigate the risk, requires qualitative analysis. Blocking a second level domain (SLD) simply on the basis that it was queried for in a past sample set runs a significant risk of false positives. SLDs that could have been delegated safely may be excluded on quantitative evidence alone, limiting the value of the new gTLD until the status of the SLD can be proven otherwise. more

3rd Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress

Momentum has released the following announcement regarding its upcoming 3rd Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress (March 3-4, 2014, The Dream Downtown, New York). more

Preserving ICANN’s Independence Through Bold Action – Not Inaction

This week, the ICANN Board will vote on whether to approve the transfer of control of the .ORG domain to a private equity firm called Ethos Capital. This is a weighty decision for ICANN, since in order to approve the sale, it will have to convince itself that this is the right choice in the face of tremendous and widespread opposition, including from those who will be most affected by the sale. more

Meta Lawsuit Leads to Significant Decline in Phishing Domains Tied to Freenom

A lawsuit filed by Meta has led to a significant decrease in phishing websites tied to the domain name registrar Freenom. Cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs in a report on Friday said that Freenom, which provides free domain name registration services, was a favored resource for cybercriminals due to its policy of protecting customer identities. more

Threat of Tiered Pricing Continues in New gTLD Guidebook Version 2

The draft New gTLD Applicant Guidebook (version 2) has been released along with an analysis of the comments to the prior version. The documents are voluminous. I glanced at the revised draft Base Agreement, and it's clearly unacceptable as there continue to be no price caps in place to protect domain name registrants... more

The Spontaneous Development of the Domain Name Market

If we traveled back in time, we would discover that unauthorized squatting on someone else's property is an ancient tort, but in cyberspace, it dates from the mid-1990s. Its emergence brought together governments and intellectual property stakeholders to demand a rights protection mechanism devised to deal with this new form of squatting. In 1999 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) completed its work on a proposal for an online rights protection mechanism which ICANN crafted into the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). more

ICANN 55, Marrakech: Witnessing a Historic Event, Community Empowered Work Continues

Earlier this month, MarkMonitor representatives were privileged to witness, at the first ICANN meeting of 2016 in Marrakech, Morroco, the historic presentation of the plan to transfer the stewardship of key internet functions (IANA) from the United States Government to a community and consensus-based model of governance through ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). more

Phishing: A Look Into the E-Crime Landscape

At the recent Anti-Phishing Working Group meeting in San Francisco, Rod Rasmussen and I published our latest APWG Global Phishing Survey. Phishing is a distinct kind of e-crime, one that's possible to measure and analyze in depth. Our report is a look at how criminals act and react, and what the implications are for the domain name industry. more

Additional .COM Domain Name Transfer Requirement by October 28

Registrars who support .com domain names will use the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) system by October 28. ...There will be an additional step when trying to transfer a .com domain name among registrars. Specifically, a piece of information called an EPP code (aka auth code, EPP key, transfer secret) must be obtained from the current registrar and submitted to the gaining one prior to approving with the latter. more

Enough With Blacklisting Online Pharmacies, Isn’t It Time to Consider White Lists?

Before I go back to the beginning, let me make clear that what follows are my personal observations vis-a-vis how National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) is managing the .Pharmacy Registry relative to personal experience as founder, President and CEO of Tralliance Corporation, the original manager of the .Travel Registry. My analysis may be a little long, but I promise that if you stay with me, you will be enlightened. more

Still Missing in Action

After wading through the various IANA Notice of Inquiry (NOI) submissions I thought I would take a break and do a secondary review of the recently concluded ICANN regional meeting in San Francisco. In doing this review there were three things that kind of jumped out at me as still missing in action. more