ICANN

What Does the July 29 Deadline Mean for .brand TLDs?

This is the first post in a series from Corey Grant, Senior Industry Consultant at ARI Registry Services, on what .brand TLDs need to do to get started and make the most of their TLDs... If you are a .brand Top Level Domain (TLD) and have a Registry Agreement from ICANN which you have not yet signed, you need to sign it by July 29, 2015. You're not alone; there are many others in the same boat -- all staring at their Registry Agreement trying to figure out what to do next. more

Going Going Gone: ICANN Auction Rules Cause a Stir

The applicant community is working its will on the rules for generic top-level domain (gTLD) auctions published by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). But, as always, ICANN is no pushover. ICANN posted the new gTLD auction rules for public comment last month after community outcry over the preliminary rules during ICANN's Public Meeting in Buenos Aires in November. more

US House Subcommittee to Hold Hearing for ICANN’s New TLD Rollout

Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "The House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet will hold an 'ICANN Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Oversight Hearing' on Wednesday May 4 at 10am local time. The hearing has been called at the direction of the committee's chairman, Rep. Bob Goodlatte." more

“In the Public Interest”

Prior to November 30th of this year, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) must decide whether to renew or allow to expire its Cooperative Agreement with Verisign, the private-sector corporation that operationally controls the root of the Internet.. The Cooperative Agreement is unusually obscure, especially considering its central role in the operation of the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS). more

Cruz’s Crusade Against IANA Transition Continues with Senate Hearing

Senator Cruz's against the IANA transition will continue next week with a senate hearing next week. The hearing is entitled: Protecting Internet Freedom: Implications of Ending U.S. Oversight of the Internet. While the hearing is being chaired by Cruz, no indication of who else will be speaking has been made public so far. In a press release from Cruz's offices earlier this evening, the Senator continued his almost hysterical and misleading narrative. more

.COM Contract Amendment Coming Soon for Public Comment

Last Thursday, during VeriSign's Q3 2019 quarterly earnings call, CEO Jim Bidzos offered statements that seemed to be carefully calibrated to satisfy Wall Street's curiosity about protracted negotiations with ICANN on a Third Amendment to the .com Registry Agreement while also appearing to distance the company from the soon-to-be forthcoming product of that year-long effort. more

Community New gTLD Applications: The Wrong Choice

Community new gTLD applications were one of the three options offered by version one of ICANN new gTLD applicant guidebook. It was also possible to submit a "generic" or a "geographic application." I dug the ICANN website and found out that, in the end - and according to me only - it was a bad choice to submit such application...
I went through the 52 delegated applications to investigate which ones have lots of domain name registrations and which ones don't. more

What’s Next for gTLD Applicants?

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

ICANN Senior Executive Resigns Over Undisclosed Conflict of Interest

Senior vice president Kurt Pritz has resigned his new job as ICANN's Chief Strategy Officer over an undisclosed conflict of interest, reports Kieren McCarthy in .Nxt. "In a note posted on the organization's website earlier today, new CEO Fadi Chehade noted that Pritz had resigned 'because of a recently identified conflict of interest'. ICANN has so far refused to identify what that conflict is." more

ccTLDs Might Be Property

The long-running saga of victims who are pursuing 'state sponsors of terrorism' via ICANN has taken yet another turn. Some time back the Plaintiffs in Rubin & ors -v- Islamic Republic of Iran & ors managed to obtain Writs of Attachment in the Federal court district in Washington (D.C.) courts ordering that the ccTLDs of those respective countries be seized in part-payment of the damages they are owed. ICANN, fairly predictably, became involved at this point. more

Why We Don’t “Stick to Our Knitting”: auDA’s Role in the Internet Governance Landscape

Last Friday, following three weeks of dazzling diplomacy, the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) 2014 Plenipotentiary Conference came to a conclusion in Busan, South Korea. For those unfamiliar with the event, the "Plenipot" is the ITU's most significant gathering... At the Plenipot, ITU members elect new office-bearers, set general policies and determine the Union's strategic plans and activities for the next four years. It is this last part that is of most interest to stakeholders in the Internet community... more

IANA Transition Needs Clear Benchmarks and Safety Valves

The transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to the multi-stakeholder community is one step closer to becoming reality. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) approved the proposal submitted by the ICANN to privatize oversight of the internet domain name system's central root zone last week, crossing a critical hurdle for advocates of the transition. However, two recent Congressional hearings have put the IANA transition back in the crosshairs of many policymakers and political pundits, keeping the likelihood of the transition occurring before September up in the air once again. more

ICANN Announces Results of New gTLD Universal Acceptance Analysis

ICANN, in conjunction with the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) announced this week the availability of a new report: An Analysis of New gTLD Universal Acceptance. The study focuses on the concept of removing all technical barriers that might hinder a user from accessing any name in any top-level domain (TLD) from any web browser, email client, or other Internet application on any computer or electronic device. more

Call for Participation – ICANN DNSSEC and Security Workshop for ICANN74 Policy Forum

Do you have information about DNS security or routing security that you would like to share with the global community? Have you developed a new tool or system in this area? Do you have results from a research project that you want to share with a technical community? If so, please consider submitting a proposal to the DNSSEC and Security workshop to be held at ICANN 74 in June 2022. more

First Insights from the GAC Early Warnings on New Top-Level Domains

Today, the national governments that constitute ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) for the first time publicly voiced their concerns over specific new Top-Level Domain (TLD) applications in the form of Early Warnings. More than 240 individual GAC Early Warnings were issued in relation to 200 new TLD applications which account for 162 unique strings. By far the most prolific government to issue GAC Early Warnings was the Australian government with 129. more