ICANN and Monopolies

One thing that ICANN clearly lacks is a set of well documented and often referenced founding principles. This leaves the awkward position where everyone who has been around since the beginning has a different position on what those principles should have been and all those that have joined later know that there is something fundamental missing. The missing principle vexing me this week is that of fair competition. Even now, long after the gTLD vote, the argument still runs on... more

The Future of the Internet Ecosystem in a Post-Open Internet Order World (Event Videos)

An event titled, The Future of the Internet Ecosystem in a Post-Open Internet Order World, took place Last week organized by the Technology Policy Institute and the University of Pennsylvania Law School's Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition. more

Updates on the Georgian Cyber Attacks

This is an update of my previous post on the subject. To be honest here, no one truly knows what's going on in Georgia's Internet except for what can be glimpsed from outside, and what has been written by the Georgians on their blog (outside their country). They are probably a bit busy avoiding kinetic bombing... more

Cars.com $850 Million Valuation: Methodology Critique

Here is a critical look at a recent online essay about the methodology to estimate the value of the domain name cars.com, which was estimated to be $850 million. Not about estimation of valuation model's parameters' nor whether the estimate is too low or too high. Rather its valuation methodology... The purpose of a valuation is Important. Absolute valuation of any asset is its value when put to its best use. more

Google to Deploy Its First Private Trans-Atlantic Subsea Cable

Google today announced plans to launch its latest private subsea cable project dubbed Dunant. The cable will cross the Atlantic Ocean from Virginia Beach in the U.S. to the French Atlantic coast, the company says. more

ICANN Accountability: Beware the Bridge Too Far

Yesterday I had the privilege of delivering the keynote address at the inaugural Internet Society (Canada) Symposium. In my remarks, I took the opportunity to talk about my thoughts on the current status of the IANA stewardship transition and enhancing ICANN accountability processes. Fact is I'm getting increasingly concerned. As we head into what will be a critical meeting of the CCWG-Accountability in Los Angeles today, I fear that the Internet governance community is headed for a showdown, the consequences of which could prove detrimental. more

NSA Admits Purchasing Americans’ Internet Browsing Data Without Warrants

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has confirmed acquiring Americans' internet browsing information without warrants through commercial brokers, according to a letter from NSA Director Paul Nakasone to Senator Ron Wyden. more

China’s Latest Internet Crackdown

Seven different government agencies, including the Ministry of Public Security and the State Council Information Office declared war on Internet smut today. 19 Internet companies, including Google, Baidu, Sina, and others, were cited for "violating public morality and harming the physical and mental health of youth and young people."... Another Chinese language report, including video of a TV report with footage of computer servers being confiscated by police at an unknown location and unknown time... more

New gTLDs Will Create Tens of Thousands of New Jobs

Anyone paying attention to ICANN's public meetings in Cartagena last month would have quickly become aware of a powerful recurring theme -- fear. Despite all the substantial progress that was made on the new generic top-level domains program, and despite the generally optimistic, up-beat tone of the debate, it was ultimately fear that ruled. Specifically, the fear of governments, and their lobbyists in the intellectual property community, that the program may have an overall adverse economic impact. more

Current ICANN Policy Precludes the ITU Becoming an IP Address Registry

Lost in all the discussion around the recent ITU meeting (TIES account required of course) is any discussion of the current policy regarding the formation of new RIRs. You may recall that one of the reports that the ITU commissioned on this subject suggests that it would be possible, even desirable for the ITU to be allocated a /12 of IPv6 from the IANA to be further allocated to Country Internet Registries. more

NTIA Extends Comment Period for Its Paper “Fostering the Advancement of the Internet of Things”

Over the past year, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in the Department of Commerce has convened a series of meetings and sought feedback on the policy implications of the Internet of Things... more

Dutch Geographic TLDs Refuse Public Access to Whois Data

Organizations behind two of the new geographic top-level domains, .amsterdam and .frl, have refused to provide public access to information about the registrants of domain names, otherwise known as Whois records. more

Watch ION Belfast / UKNOF Live Tuesday, Sept 9, for IPv6, DNSSEC, BGP Security and More

On Tuesday, September 9, 2014, you have a great opportunity to watch live a very packed agenda full of great sessions about IPv6, DNSSEC, routing/BGP security and other components of Internet infrastructure streaming out of the UKNOF / ION Belfast event in Belfast, UK. All of the sessions can be seen live. more

The Christmas Goat and IPv6 (Year 12)

This year could be the fifth year in a row where the goat isn't burned down. But early in the morning of Dec 17th, it was on fire by an arsonist who got caught a few minutes later. So Stephan Lagerholm, who had visited me earlier for some IPv6 site seeing in Gävle and I were lucky to get this photo. The traffic went down by 5% from last year, and I don't have any good explanation for that. The visitors with many hits in the logs are always from the same countries where North America and Europe are dominating. more

Declaring and Declining to Find Reverse Domain Name Hijacking

What to one panelist is clearly bad faith conduct in filing a UDRP complaint, to another is excusable for lack of proof. The disagreement over reverse domain name hijacking centers on the kind of evidence necessary to justify it and the nature of the burden. RDNH is defined as "using the UDRP in bad faith to attempt to deprive a registered domain-name holder of a domain name." Rule 1, Definitions. more