Domain Enforcement in a Post-GDPR World

The implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and ICANN's conservative temporary policy, which favors privacy and limits registrar liability, has made domain enforcement against cybersquatters, cyber criminals and infringement more difficult, expensive and slow. With heightened concerns over privacy following high-profile breaches of consumer data and its subsequent illicit use and distribution, there is no question that consumer data protection practices would come under scrutiny. more

From Toad to Princess - New TLDs Are No Magical Wand in the Kingdom of Search Engines

Google has posted details on Ranking of new gTLDs (new gTLDs) in search. John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst, said that new gTLD's will be treated the same as other gTLD's such as .com. He stated: "Overall, our systems treat new gTLDs like other gTLDs (like .com & .org). Keywords in a TLD do not give any advantage or disadvantage in search." The ambiguous use of the word "overall" in the statement, may leave some doubt as to whether the 600 .brands -- new domain extensions operated by brand owners -- are included or excluded in any VIP search ranking treatment. more

Painting Ourselves Into a Corner with Path MTU Discovery

In Tony Li's article on path MTU discovery we see this text: "The next attempt to solve the MTU problem has been Packetization Layer Path MTU Discovery (PLPMTUD). Rather than depending on ICMP messaging, in this approach, the transport layer depends on packet loss to determine that the packet was too big for the network. Heuristics are used to differentiate between MTU problems and congestion. Obviously, this technique is only practical for protocols where the source can determine that there has been packet loss. Unidirectional, unacknowledged transfers, typically using UDP, would not be able to use this mechanism. To date, PLPMTUD hasn't demonstrated a significant improvement in the situation." Tony's article is (as usual) quite readable and useful, but my specific concern here is DNS... more

ICANN IRT Report Open for Comment With Short Timeframe?

The Intellectual Property Constituency's draft report on trademark issues is now available for comment. The draft report was put together behind closed doors, which would appear to go against the normal policy development process at ICANN, which is quite worrying. Its contents, however, are even more disturbing... more

“Requiescat in Pace” - the new .RIP Generic Top-Level Domain

I thought "RIP" stood for "Rest In Peace". I thought it was an acronym used in English only and a TLD that would be understood by the next generation; because no one would ever register such a domain name ending in .RIP today. When you say "RIP", it makes you think of death... I have also said that such a TLD was something... typically American and that no other culture would consider buying such domain names because promoting death online is something a bit odd. more

CENTR: Internet Governance in 2013 and What’s Coming Up in 2014

Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries (CENTR) has published an Issue Paper entitled "Internet Governance Landscape this year and next." The following is a summary from the paper along with links to download the document in full. more

Are the TISA Trade Talks a Threat to Net Neutrality, Data Protection, or Privacy?

On December 17th a US proposal for online commerce in a major trade negotiation, the Trade in Services Agreement ("TISA") leaked. A flurry of press releases and opinion pieces claim that TISA is a threat to the Internet. The headlines are lurid: "TISA leak: EU Data Protection and Net Neutrality Threatened" and "Leaked TISA text exposes US threat to privacy, civil rights"... Because I've spent years in Geneva regularly meeting with and advising negotiators on the networked economy I have a very different perspective. more

UN and Cybersecurity: Searching for Consensus in a Divided World

The 78th UN General Assembly (UNGA) addressed the issue of cybersecurity again at one of its last meetings in December 2023. It included the adoption of four resolutions on the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG), a "Program of Action" (POA), and autonomous weapon systems. The texts of the four draft resolutions were negotiated in UNGA's 1st committee, responsible for international security issues, in October and November 2023. more

Microsoft Releases a Cybersecurity eBook, Free Download

Micorsoft has released a 253 page cybersecurity ebook primarily intended for teens but also serves as a useful resource for adults interested in overall understanding of various Internet security topics. more

IDN Scaremongering: Mashable and Times Online Screw Up

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) might be a slightly "hot" topic at the moment following on from ICANN's launch of the IDN country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) program recently. However, IDNs are NOT a new topic. Far from it. They've been around for quite some time. Unfortunately neither The Times Online or Mashable seem to have done any homework. more

Protecting Intellectual Property is Good; Mandatory DNS Filtering is Bad

It has been about six months since I got together with four of my friends from the DNS world and we co-authored a white paper which explains the technical problems with mandated DNS filtering. The legislation we were responding to was S. 968, also called the PROTECT-IP act, which was introduced this year in the U. S. Senate. By all accounts we can expect a similar U. S. House of Representatives bill soon, so we've written a letter to both the House and Senate, renewing and updating our concerns. more

Increasing DNSSEC Adoption - What if We Put DNSSEC Provision in the Hands of Registries?

There has been a lot of criticism about the worthiness of DNSSEC. Low adoption rates and resistance and reluctance by Registrars to take on the perceived burden of signing domains and passing-on cryptographic material are at the crux of the criticism. I'm a believer in DNSSEC as a unique and worthwhile security protocol and as a new platform for innovation. It's the reason I've long advocated for and continue to work toward a new model of DNSSEC provisioning. more

Peer-to-Peer Gambling Wins in the Washington Court of Appeals

Adding to the flurry of gambling news of late, the Washington Court of Appeals issued a decision today that found peer-to-peer betting company (betcha.com) did not violate Washington state gambling laws. The court runs through some other issues underlying the statute, but the net result is that Betcha is off the hook... for now. Read more... more

Closed Generic TLDs - The Final Battle?

Over the past couple of years I've posted several times on the issue of "closed generics". In essence these are new TLD applications where the string is a "generic term" AND the applicant wanted to keep all domains in the registry for their own use. The baseline registry agreement with ICANN now contains language that resolves the issue, or at least it would appear to do so. more

Spam Is Never Timely Nor Relevant

One of the ongoing recommendations to improve deliverability is to send email that is timely and relevant to the recipient. The idea being that if you send mail a recipient wants, they're more likely to interact with it in a way that signals to the mailbox provider that the message is wanted. The baseline for that, at least whenever I've talked about timely and relevant, is that the recipient asked for mail from you in the first place. more