Auditing ICANN: An Essential Element for an Alternative ICANN Budget Proposal

A coalition of over 50 domain Registrars from around the world have recommended an alternative to ICANN's proposed 2004-2005 budget. The alternative proposal from the ICANNBudget.org Registrars would cap Registrar contributions at $11 million per year for the next three years. Although this proposal represents a significant expansion beyond ICANN's 2003-2004 budget of $8.6 million budget, it is still slim compared with ICANN's own $15.8 million budget proposal. Of potentially greater importance, the alternative budget differs significantly from ICANN's proposal in the structure of the Registrar fees. more

Google Announces Plans to Invest $13 Billion in Data Centers and Offices Across the US in 2019

A blog post by Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, today announced that company plans over $13 billion in investments throughout 2019 in data centers and offices across the U.S., with significant expansions in 14 states. 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

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

Fifty Years On – What to Expect in the Next 50 Years of the Internet

When did the Internet begin? It all gets a bit hazy after so many years, but by the early 1970s, research work in packet-switched networks was well underway, and while it wasn't running TCP at the time (the flag day when the ARPANET switched over to use TCP was not until 1 January 1983) but there was the base datagram internet protocol running in the early research ARPA network in the US. Given that this is now around 50 years ago, and given that so much has happened in the last 50 years, what does the next 50 years have in store? more

GrubHub Accused of Cybersquatting Thousands of Restuarant Domain Names

An investigation by New Food Economy has revealed GrubHub and its subsidiaries have been registering thousands of domain names consisting of existing restaurant names, with over 23,000 domains registered directly under GrubHub. more

ICANN IPC & BC to Host Cross-Community Call on Accreditation/Access Model for Non-Public WHOIS Data

The ICANN Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) and Business Constituency (BC) will be hosting a community-wide discussion regarding the proposed accreditation and access model for non-public WHOIS data, which was first circulated to the community during ICANN 61. The discussion will take place via ICANN-supported remote participation and/or audio bridge this Friday, April 6, 2018, from 1400-1600 UTC. more

A Copycat Canadian Privacy Suit Against Gmail

In July, several people filed attempted class action suits against Google, on the peculiar theory that Gmail was spying on its own users' mail. One of the suits was in Federal court, the other two in California state court, but the complaints were nearly identical so we assume that they're coordinated.Now we have a similar suit filed in provincial court in British Columbia, Canada. more

Questions on the Debate on ‘Closed Generic’ gTLD Applications

ICANN is currently seeking public comment on the subject of "closed generic" gTLD applications. It asks "whether specific requirements should be adopted corresponding to this type of application". It invites comments on what it defines as an "issue". In particular, ICANN wonders how an applied-for domain can be deemed a "closed generic" TLD, and whether there should be rules governing the way this TLD will be operated. more

Who Broke the WHOIS?

As Internet services go, WHOIS held a lot of promise but has repeatedly failed to live up to its potential; raising the question "is it time to retire WHOIS?" The concept behind WHOIS was simple. For each and every registered domain name, provide the facility for querying details about who owns it, who administers it, when was it created and when it will expire. Unfortunately the service lost its way practically from day one after failing to agree upon or adhere to any formal structure of the content it provides. more

Thick Whois Policy for .COM Goes Live

"The domain name industry is kicking off one of its most fundamental shifts in its plumbing this week," Kevin Murphy reporting in Domain Incite. 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

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

Do I need DDoS protection? A Realistic Look at the Decision Process

There has been a recent spate of well publicised Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that bring websites down and render them useless, including Evernote and most recently Feedly. In light of this, here are some comments and tips to help companies evaluate and prepare not to be held for ransom or suffer lost reputation and sales as a result. more

The Mosque and the Bazaar: Islam, ICANN, and the New gTLD Program

The launch of the new gTLD program in January, 2012 was undoubtedly one of the finest moments for ICANN; and rightly so. The launch was a culmination of thousands of hours of hard work by thousands of people from various countries, interests, and walks of life. In the end, a 338-page Applicant Guidebook with details about how the new gTLD program was to be implemented was produced. Thus was set the stage for the greatest cyberland rush in history. more