Why Cancel a Domain Name in a UDRP Case?

While the most common results of a UDRP proceeding are either transfer of a disputed domain name to a complainant or denial (that is, allowing the respondent to retain it), there is another possible outcome: cancellation. I'm always surprised to see a UDRP decision in which a domain name is cancelled. True, many trademark owners don't really want to obtain control of a disputed domain name (and, instead, they simply want to get it taken away from a cybersquatter). more

iBreakfast New gTLD Conference in NYC Wed Aug 3rd

Joly MacFie writes to report: "iBreakfast is presenting About the 'Domain' Conference: The Era of New TLDs, this Wednesday Aug 3 2011 at Herrick, Feinstein LLC in NYC. Wendy Seltzer, Esther Dyson, and Annalisa Roger, representatives of dotgay, .berlin, .xxx, plus major registries are among the participants who will discuss how the Internet will be impacted by the coming new TLD rollout." more

M3AAWG, London Action Plan Release Best Practices to Address Online and Mobile Threats

A cooperative international report was released last week outlining Internet and mobile best practices aimed at curtailing malware, phishing, spyware, bots and other Internet threats. It also provides extensive review of current and emerging threats. "Best Practices to Address Online and Mobile Threats" is a comprehensive assessment of Internet security as it stands today... more

Setting ICANN’S Governmental Advisory Committee Up to Succeed

ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) - the special stakeholder group responsible for providing government advice to ICANN on issues of public policy - has an important role to play in the remaining evaluation and delegation phases of the new Top-Level Domain (TLD) program. For some applicants, the future of their new TLD projects may rest on the decisions of the 50 or so national government representatives that are active members of the GAC. more

Paths of Glory: Privacy Still Matters

The world has changed dramatically for the better over the last 15 years, mainly due to the commercialization of the Internet. That is what I would like to believe. Unfortunately, I am no longer sure. True, the Internet connects all of us with every corner of the world... For the rest, the times may be changing, because there are those who believe that the Internet should be molded to fit those same old bureaucracies and corrupted institutions that have plagued humanity for decades, if not centuries. The solution, many times, feels far out of reach. more

Likely Timeline to New gTLD Delegation With Batching

Today, the team at ARI Registry Services decided to tread where no-one has tread before and map out the likely timeline to new gTLD delegation with batching. The exercise took some time, given that the information provided in the Applicant Guidebook is limited and there hasn't been any specific public data made available. However, we have presented what we believe to be the likely scenario should ICANN proceed under the current batching model, assuming a first batch of 500 applications. more

DNS, Content Providers Including Google and Neustar Propose Extending DNS Protocol

A proposal to extend the DNS protocol has been submitted by Google and other DNS and content providers such as Neustar/UltraDNS. Wilmer van der Gaast and Carlo Contavalli on behalf of the Google Public DNS team said: "Our proposed DNS protocol extension lets recursive DNS resolvers include part of your IP address in the request sent to authoritative nameservers. Only the first three octets, or top 24 bits, are sent providing enough information to the authoritative nameserver to determine your network location, without affecting your privacy." The proposal aims to ultimately help send users to nearby servers in order to improves speed, latency, and network utilization. more

U.S. National Cybersecurity Strategy and Its Impact on Domain Security

Last month, the U.S. National Cybersecurity Strategy was launched, providing a new roadmap for stronger collaboration between those operating within the digital ecosystem. The strategy calls on software makers and American industry to take far greater responsibility to assure that their systems cannot be hacked while accelerating efforts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Defense Department to disrupt the activities of hackers and ransomware groups around the world. more

Reported Risk of Undersea Communication Cable Sabotage Are Exaggerated

Responding to a recent New York Times article which warned the possibility of Russian submarines possessing the ability to sabotage undersea communication cables, Doug Madory, Director of Internet Analysis at Dyn, calls them exaggerated scenarios. more

Net Neutrality Advocates: Wireless Carriers’ Network Management Must Be ‘Reasonable’

Emboldened by their summertime victory against Comcast, advocates of network neutrality said Thursday that the next front in battle for the principle would be against wireless carriers who make "unreasonable" network management decisions. In a panel discussion on managing wireless networks at the Wireless Communications Association conference here, Free Press Policy Director, Ben Scott and Google Telecom Counsel, Richard Whitt said that the FCC's Net neutrality principles would bar discrimination over wireless networks -- while conceding that the networks are, for the time being, more bandwidth-constrained than wired-based network. more

Cruz and Co Send ICANN Another Letter

Republican Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz (and others) has sent yet another letter to ICANN. This time round, the letter is addressed both to the Chairman of the ICANN Board, Dr Steve Crocker, as well as to former CEO Fadi Chehadé. The letter repeats some of the questions previously put to ICANN, though the wording is much blunter this time round. Cruz' office issued a press release with details of the letter under the title of "ICANN Is Stonewalling the U.S. Congress". more

ICANN Warns of Governance Crisis at AFRINIC Amid Allegations and Legal Challenges

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has issued a stern open letter to the Government of Mauritius and the court-appointed receiver of AFRINIC, the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa and the Indian Ocean. The letter, dated July 16th, expresses grave concern over AFRINIC’s governance failures, opaque election practices, and recent attempts by a controversial resource member to dissolve the organization. more

NTIA to Allow IANA Functions Contract to Expire October 1

On Friday, ICANN informed NTIA that it has completed or will complete all the necessary tasks called for in the transition proposal by the end of the contract term. more

Broadband in Emerging Markets

Today, over half the world's population now has access to a mobile phone, with 5.37 billion mobile subscriptions and over two billion internet users worldwide by the end of 2010. However, these are more than just bald statistics -- today, modern ICTs are genuinely changing people's lives for the better. more

Genachowski: FCC Will Enforce Net Neutrality and Watch Any Violations of Principles

US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski today reaffirmed his commitment to network neutrality and said that the FCC will go after anyone who violates its tenets. "One thing I would say so that there is no confusion out there is that this FCC will support net neutrality and will enforce any violation of net neutrality principles," said Genachowski told The Hill newspaper when asked what he could do in his position to keep the Internet fair, free and open to all Americans. more