In Ripley Scott's classic 1982 science fiction film Blade Runner, replicant Roy Batty (portrayed by Rutger Hauer) delivers this soliloquy... "I've...seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those... moments... will be lost in time, like (cough) tears... in... rain. Time... to die." more
The internet has become almost part of our daily involvement and reality is that it affects every facet of our modern lives. We are increasingly becoming dependent on the Internet, for which reason its availability, functionality, safety, stability and security are now of great and continuing concern to all of us and most importantly to US Congress, who so far has maintained stewardship over these key functions. more
It's hard to believe that another year has come and gone and that I'm now publishing my 5th Annual Domain Name Year in Review. It's sort of fun to look back 5 years ago to see how much things have changed, especially as focus has shifted to issues related to the launch and use of new gTLDs. Of course, much has stayed the same too. Concerns related to domain name security and domain portfolio management are still important. more
A group of twenty-four civil society organizations and individuals today submitted a joint statement regarding a proposal from an ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) sub-group on the use of "geographic names" in top-level domains. The joint civil society statement cautioned against the adoption of the GAC proposal that would give governments veto power on domains that use "geographic names." more
Here we are with CircleID's annual roundup of top ten most popular posts featured during 2014 (based on overall readership). Congratulations to all the participants whose posts reached top readership and best wishes for 2015. more
On December 1, 2014 the Cross Community Working Group (CWG) on Naming Related Functions published a Draft Transition Proposal. The comment period on the Proposal extended for twenty-one days; due to a requirement imposed by the separate IANA Coordination Group (ICG) that a final proposal be received by mid-January, there was no provision for a follow-up reply comment period as is standard ICANN Practice for issues of far less consequence. more
Even though the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) plays a very important role in the global Internet ecosystem, its activities are not frequently mentioned in the mainstream international media; that is, until ICANN's name is mentioned alongside that of the US Congress in a US$1.1 trillion Omnibus spending bill. Since the bill was passed by the House of Representatives, the issue of ICANN has assumed a certain topicality and has attracted commentary from many pundits. more
2015 has just started, but the calendar of events related to Internet Governance is already fully packed until the end of the year. The list of issues under discussion gets longer and longer and more and more people expect concrete results from the numerous meetings. Whether we will see the next stumbling step forward on the long march through the Internet Governance Ecosystem will depend to a high degree from the outcomes of two different, but interrelated processes which will overshadow the Internet discussion in 2015. more
In an announcement on Tuesday, ICANN reports that it is investigating a recent intrusion into its systems. The agency believes a "spear phishing" attack was initiated in late November 2014. It involved email messages that were crafted to appear to come from its own domain being sent to members of its staff. more
Kieren McCarthy reporting in the Register: "Plans to create a new internet governance body have grown increasingly desperate... and confusing. A conference call between the organizers of the 'NetMundial Initiative' and business organization the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) earlier this week saw ICANN's CEO Fadi Chehade pleading with the group to withdraw their rejection of the program and join its 'coordination council'" more
On Monday November 24 2014 ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehadé met with NYC community at the office of Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. Present were representatives of ISOC-NY, Connecting .nyc, New York Tech Meetup, Meetup, NameSpace, Access, and Google. The discussions were partly about NYC's own new TLD and partly about general ICANN issues. more
The more I follow the .WINE & .VIN opera, the more I start to believe that the idea is either to kill both new gTLD applications to free space in Round 2 of the ICANN new gTLD program or make this subject a political tool "only" to increase Europe's presence in ICANN decisions. If there still is a wish from the European Commission to help .WINE and .VIN to become the strongest identity European wines could ever have on Internet, I would like to understand why the situation is still blocked... more
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
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
In a landmark ruling, a U.S. federal court has agreed with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that the country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) are not property subject to attachment and thus overruled an attempt to seize Iran's, Syria's and North Korea's domains as part of a lawsuit against those countries' governments. more
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