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A History of Holding ICANN to Account

I'm attending only my second ICANN meeting here in Prague since I left the role as Executive Officer and Vice President Corporate Affairs at ICANN in January 2010... Today at the meeting's opening, outgoing President and CEO Rod Beckstrom said that on his first day on the job he was given a 'blank sheet of paper' and told that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the US Department of Commerce was not going to be renewed by ICANN and "you better come up with something better and you have to get it done in 90 days because the MoU is going to expire." It's great rhetorical flourish but the reality is vastly different. more

A Closer Look at China’s Call for an End to the Internet Governance Forum

China as a nation with a population of 1.3 billion people, represents over a fifth of the whole world and for this reason, if not for any other, we need to sit up and listen to anything that China says, though a lot of what China says may be disagreeable. China unambiguously stated its position during the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Open Consultations at Geneva on May 13. On this instance, I consider the views expressed by China largely respectable, but needs to be bridged in some areas. more

Internet Governance in 2026: Sovereignty, Security, and the Limits of Multistakeholderism

As Internet governance fragments in 2026, authority shifts from open, multistakeholder forums to state-led security regimes, legal instruments, and alliance-based cooperation, challenging longstanding institutions and reshaping global norms through enforcement rather than consensus. more

A DeLorean, 88 Miles an Hour and a Fully-Charged Flux Capacitor…

For a brief moment earlier this week, I thought my days spent dreaming of hover-boards, flying cars and Biff's elusive Sports Almanac were finally over. From reports circulating online, we had finally reached "Back to the Future Day". Those movie buffs out there will know exactly what I'm referring to... But it got me thinking. What would the Domain Name world look like if that crazy cat Doc Brown swung past in his DeLorean, with a fully-charged flux capacitor and a return ticket to October 21st 2015? more

Who Pays When .Org Prices Rise?

When .org prices rise, who suffers – nonprofits or speculators? Will Ethos Capital raise prices more aggressively than ISOC would? Vint Cerf attributed concerns about higher prices to speculators: "Of course, companies that hold domain names in the tens of thousands for speculative purposes might find such increases more troubling, but I don't have much sympathy for that business model in the context of the organizations the .org brand is intended to serve." more

.WEB is ICANN’s First Test of Accountability

Last month, in a much heralded international event, the agreement that ICANN held with the United States Department of Commerce was permitted to lapse and so ICANN became an independent manager of the Internet's addressing system. While some argued that the organization was not "ready" for the transition, the majority of ICANN's multi-stakeholder community, including Afilias, agreed that sufficient accountability measures were in place to ensure that ICANN remains a responsible (and responsive) international organization. more

New gTLD Queries at the Root & Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle

Since Verisign published its second SSR report a few weeks back, recently updated with revision 1.1, we've been taking a deeper look at queries to the root servers that elicit "Name Error," or NXDomain responses and figured we'd share some preliminary results. Not surprisingly, promptly after publication of the Interisle Consulting Group's Name Collision in the DNS [PDF] report, a small number of the many who are impacted are aiming to discredit the report. more

Identity, ICANN, and Public Meetings

Ok, so I had a day in Wellington that was not busy with other things so I thought I'd wander over to the ICANN venue and sit in on the PUBLIC Forum... I saw friends on the walk over and we entered the venue, chatting about several different things. They pulled out their badges. I didn't have one. They were admitted, I was denied entrance... more

IDNs in cc-Minor: an Unfinished Symphony

When he wanted to show the transformative and unifying power of the Internet to open this week's ICANN meeting in Seoul, ICANN President Rod Beckstrom had an ace in the hole: Korean guitarist Jay (Jeong-hyun Lim), who became a global YouTube sensation with his hard-rocking version of Pachelbel's Canon. As I watched Jay wail on his gold-plated guitar to standing ovations, I couldn't help but think of Rod waxing that the Internet was a "symphony" of ideas and voices from around the world. more

GDPR - Territorial Scope and the Need to Avoid Absurd and Inconsistent Results

There is an urgent need to clarify the GDPR's territorial scope. Of the many changes the GDPR will usher in this May, the expansion of EU privacy law's territorial scope is one of the most important. The GDPR provides for broad application of its provisions both within the EU and globally. But the fact that the GDPR has a broad territorial scope does not mean that every company, or all data processing activities, are subject to it. more

The .Org Price Caps Removed Under New Agreement With ICANN

ICANN agrees to remove price caps on .org domain names in the new agreement with the operator of the top-level domain, Public Interest Registry (PIR). The decision follows controversies around the move, which included objections from registrants, non-profit entities, charities, religious organizations and others. more

ANA Moves Campaign Against New gTLDs to YouTube, Accuses ICANN of Lying

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has shifted its campaign against ICANN's new gTLD program to YouTube with a video from its President accusing the organization of "lying" about having reached a consensus over its plans, reports Kieren McCarthy at .Nxt. "The video ends with a dramatic statement, clearly devised to produce stories such as this one: 'So we'd like to say to ICANN: your claim for consensus it wrong, it is false, it is a lie." more

Domains and the Freedom to Speak

For a very long time, predating the birth of ICANN, there's been a running battle about what should be required when one registers domain names. To oversimplify quite a lot, one side sees domain names as an essential component of free speech, so anyone should be able to register any domain without limit, the other notes that they're primarily used for commercial purposes and they enable quite a lot of mischief, so the more control, the better. more

Could DoC Nominee Benefit Internet Governance, Help Globalize ICANN?

Wednesday's announcement by the Obama administration, that former Washington state governor Gary Locke has been nominated as the next Secretary of Commerce could be a good sign for Internet governance, and the continued globalization of the ICANN regime. The Chinese-American Locke brings key political capital and experience to the table. He is well respected within and has access to the most senior levels of the Chinese government... more

ICANN Announces Kurt Erik Lindqvist as New President and CEO

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has appointed Kurt Erik "Kurtis" Lindqvist as its new President and CEO, effective December 5, 2024. Lindqvist, an industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in the development of Internet Service Providers and global network carriers, currently serves as the CEO of the London Internet Exchange (LINX). more