As I sit in Schiphol airport awaiting the final leg of my journey home from ICANN Toronto, I'm thinking of all the work that lies ahead in the coming months. The sense of being caught in the holding pattern that descended over the industry after the Prague meeting and lasted into September, is evidently over. The wheels have thankfully begun to turn again on the path towards the new TLDs finally going live. more
Forty days. That's how long Fadi Chehade has had to get a handle on the most complex, diverse and important non-profit corporation the world has ever known. The last guy to face such an unforgiving timeline was measuring timber in cubits. So if Cheade is Noah, I guess that makes ICANN Chairman Steve Crocker God, telling Fadi to wrangle all these diverse (and often diverging) constituencies and march them two-by-two into the boat, ahead of the coming storm. more
The Internet, at nearly every stage of its evolution, has effected change in existing intellectual property industries as those industries struggle to keep up with the march of technological advancement. For example, the entertainment industry has seen widespread piracy and bootlegging of just and soon-to-be released movies as a result of the increased availability of broadband Internet access in the home, and efficient peer-to-peer file-sharing technologies online. In response the entertainment industry has backed a wave of proposed legislation including the maligned Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). more
When the fantasy of a universal trademark clearance house was floated in the name of protecting existing trademark owners by the opposing lobbies against the global domain name expansion, particularly the gTLD programs, the domain name industry and ICANN quickly accepted the idea. A universal trademark clearance house is perhaps a greatest idea but in reality a fantasy. Today, at ICANN, the best minds are teamed-up and struggling to get the TMHC (Trademark Clearance House) constructed. more
Just under 4 years ago and fresh from his world celebrated election win of the White House and the US Presidency on a platform of "Change Has Come To America", newly elected US President Barak Obama packed his bags and headed to Cairo on a strategic vision and mission that included delivering a speech from Cairo University aimed at winning the trust of Arabs and Muslims worldwide... This morning in Toronto, Canada new ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehadé will also attempt a similar feat that is no less important to the world than that of Obama's 4 years ago. more
ICANN is clearly changing with the new CEO making immediate changes to the organizational structure and Compliance announcing a number more effective tools and procedures at Sunday's At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) and Regional Leadership Meetings. It seems very ambitious and they will need to be because our year-long research, publicly distributed here for the first time, shows a complete breakdown in ICANN's Compliance functions on every level possible. more
I propose calling it Values Disorder Syndrome (VDS). It is a virus affecting groups of people. Though rational as individuals, sufferers acting in groups display an inexplicable addiction to the thrill of impunity. That behavior is totally irrational and unrelated to any perspective of gain or purpose... It is certainly a virus, and we know it goes around in ICANN circles. The proof is that the ICANN board has caught it. more
Applicants will have some considerable work to do over the next several months as the Evaluation Panels consider application comments and pose clarifying questions, the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) concludes its review for Early Warnings, and Objections are filed. In addition, Applicants have an opportunity to help ICANN with their timelines by settling string contention as soon as practical. more
As the battle rages over threats to the Internet architecture, a recent publication over the Patent Application for Domain Name Transfers by Verisign is disturbing for those who advocate an open and free Internet. The Application is based on an immediate and direct threat towards an open and free Internet. Just in case people are tempted to think that this was a prank given that they filed it on the 1 April 2011, searches at the United States Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO) reveals that this is a legitimate application . more
As the fall of 2012 begins the implementation of rights protection mechanisms (RPMs) for new gTLDs is reaching a critical stage... Given the half year interval between the upcoming Toronto ICANN meeting and the following Beijing meeting in April 2013, it is highly desirable, and perhaps essential, that community discussion in Toronto result in a clear consensus on how RPM implementation should proceed if new gTLDs are to launch without further delay and if potential registrants are to perceive them as acceptable platforms for speech and commerce. more
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