ICANN to Grant Verisign Right to Sell a Single-Character .com Domain for First Time in Over 25 Years

ICANN's board of directors is due to vote next Thursday at the conclusion of ICANN 64, which begins Saturday in Kobe, Japan, to approve a complex proposal allowing Verisign to auction off o.com, with almost all of the proceeds going to good causes. more

Big Telegraph

On my flight back from Washington, DC last night, I prepared much of what follows, minus references. Today, while looking for references, I uncovered a very recent (6 June 2012) posting to the ITU blog that seemed entirely appropriate to mention here. It is fascinating reading, and I especially like one snippet "we are not about to take over the Internet - that suggestion is frankly ridiculous". I quite agree and hope that the ITU is genuinely interested in working with others to ensure that nothing of the sort happens. Now on to what I had prepared. more

Deliverability Emergencies from the ISP Side of the Desk

I recently read an interesting blog post over at Word to the Wise, about Delivery Emergencies. Laura Atkins makes the point that many email emergencies are a result of poor planning, or an error on the part of the sender... Fortunately, most people grow out of their college fraternity phase, and the same applies to most email senders. As folks become aware of industry standards and best common practices, they adapt their mailing paradigms to what is expected of them by receivers, and recipients. more

geoTLDs - Small but Perfectly Formed?

I always geek out a little when I see something ICANN-related breaking out into the real world, like when the bus-stop display has borked, and its LAN is vainly searching for an IP number so it can reboot. Or the ICANN Paris meeting back in 2008 when the board gave the thumbs up to the GNSO policy to launch new gTLDs. One day we were an obscure Californian organisation doing something technical-seeming most people had never heard of, and the next we were working two phones each, giving journalists quotes and information for dozens of front-page news stories around the world. more

The Business Parallels Between IPv6 and DNSSEC

For two things that would seem to be completely unrelated there is an interesting parallel between IPv6 and DNSSEC. In both cases there is a misalignment of interests between content providers and service?providers. Content providers aren't highly motivated to deploy IPv6 because only a small proportion of users have v6 connectivity and even fewer only have v6. Service providers aren't anxious to deploy IPv6? because there isn't a lot of content on v6, and virtually none exclusively on v6 - so they don't expand the universe of interesting stuff on the web by deploying IPv6. Basically the same things could be said about DNSSEC. more

Lawless Canada Emerging as a Spam Haven

The recent Facebook case has placed the spotlight on Canada's ongoing failure to address its spam problem by introducing long overdue anti-spam legislation. The fact that organizations are forced to use U.S. courts and laws to deal with Canadian spammers points to an inconvenient truth – Canadian anti-spam laws are woefully inadequate and we are rapidly emerging as a haven for spammers eager exploit the weak legal framework. more

Dyn Acquired by Oracle

Oracle this morning announced agreement to acquire Dyn, leading cloud-based Internet Performance and DNS provider. Dyn, which recently gained substantial media attention as a result of a historic cyberattack, drives 40 billion traffic optimization decisions daily for more than 3,500 enterprise customers, including preeminent digital brands such as Netflix, Twitter, Pfizer and CNBC. more

Comcast Xfinity App Argument: Risking Divestiture of Cable or Broadband

This sounds extreme, but Comcast continues to push the boundaries in separation of its broadband service with its cable service. It is walking a thin line between being a broadband provider, offering fast Internet access to millions of subscribers, and treating its Xfinity Xbox 360 App as a priority over customers not having its cable service. Saying the Xbox 360 is just another set-top-box for its own customers is just a complex way of undermining Net Neutrality rules as defined by the FCC upon the companies purchase of NBCU. more

Mapping Google

Byte Level Research has released a new version of its world map illustrating country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) in use by Google for its local search engines. Using information available on Google's Language Tools page, the new map shows over 160 ccTLDs that Google has currently in use including Andorra, Kenya, Ukraine, and Ghana. Why pick Google? John Yunker president of Byte Level Research says that he knows of no other company that hosts localized websites across so many different ccTLDs. Countries the Google currently serves even include Cuba — "I doubt many Americans are aware of that."... more

Facebook’s New Messaging Platform

On Monday, Facebook announced that they were introducing a new messaging platform. Facebook is careful to point out that this is not a replacement for email; it is not email, so they claim. So what is it? This messaging platform is basically a way to talk to people outside of Facebook from Facebook... Essentially, independent of the platform, you can still use the feature. It's kind of like everything Java promised in the 1990's -- it runs on Windows, the Mac or Unix. more

Taking the Anti-SOPA Message to the People

It was fascinating last week to read coverage of congressional hearings around the SOPA bill, or Stop Online Privacy Act. The bill has strong support from the Motion Picture Association of America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and big pharmaceutical companies. It's opposed by most technology and telecom companies, plus consumer advocate groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge. more

New MANRS Initiative Aims to Improve Security of Internet Routing

How can we work together to improve the security and resilience of the global routing system? That is the question posed by the "Routing Resilience Manifesto" site with the suggested answer launched today of the "Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) document, to which a number of network operators have already signed on as participants, including: Comcast, Level 3, NTT, RUNNet, ClaraNet, SURFnet, SpaceNet, KPN and CERNET. more

Identical or Confusingly Similar to Trademarks but Noninfringing Domain Names

Domain names may be confusingly similar to trademarks or even identical or but not infringing. This is particularly true of trademarks acquired later than the allegedly infringing domain names ArcBest Corporation v. Domains By Proxy, LLC, Registration Private / Vernon Troupe, D2016-2381 (WIPO January 13, 2017) (<arcbest.com>, in which "ark" is a contraction of "Arkansas"), but it can also apply to marks composed of common element that predate domain name registration... more

Broadband Giants Stay Neutral on Network Funding

It looks as if the big boys like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast are passing on the stimulus money. The official reason is that they don't need it, that they enough cash on hand to build out their networks on their own. Fair enough. Perhaps the funding should be reserved for those more in need, those that just need a boost to fund a new business model or expand service. But there are probably other reasons. more

Why Starlink is Failing to Pierce Iran’s Total Internet Blackout

Iran's regime has all but nullified, for the most part, Elon Musk's Starlink satellite network using advanced jamming, legal threats, and raids, turning a promising tool for protestors into a cautionary tale of digital authoritarianism. more