Much Ado About WCIT-12 and Multi-Stakeholderism

In the last month of last year, the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12) ended in Dubai amid, not hugs and fanfare, but finger-pointing and acrimony. The end, much anticipated as it was, wasn't the finest hour for international cooperation for the global public interest. Looking back, one would be forgiven to conclude that the WCIT-12 was doomed to fail. more

Pandora’s Box - New US Cyber Security Bills Create a Worm Hole in the Internet Galaxy

There are two Bills that are floating through the corridors of power on the Hill that could potentially change the course of civil and political rights within the United States and the world. One was introduced through the House of Representatives and the other through the Senate. The two Bills touch on a common thread that are premised on "national security" however there are interesting challenges that will surface should the Bills be passed that affect global public interest that require further examination, introspection and discussion. more

Contention Is Best Settled by Those Who Know the Players & Industry

Several posts have been made on the topic of contention resolution and private auctions around the new gTLD program over the last few weeks on CircleID. Many of the Applicants we spoke to thought it was appropriate to weigh in from the RightoftheDot.com perspective. We want you to know that the RightOfTheDot auction offering for contention resolution for new gTLD's, unlike other offerings, remains unchanged from when it was first announced to the Domain Industry. more

Copyright Infringement and ccTLDs

.tk was once designated as the riskiest ccTLD. .ru is often said to be, after .com, the most used in the content of spam messages. But is there a ccTLD that is a favorite destination for copyright infringement? The question is worth asking in view of the growing trend for .com domain names seizures related to copyright infringement. more

The Incredible Leakyness of Commercial Mailers

Acronis is a company that sells backup software. They have been around for over a decade, and have lots of big respectable customers. The Wall Street Journal is the nation's leading business newspaper. Equifax is one of the big three national credit bureaus. Shelfari is a book interest web site owned by Amazon. The Economist is a globally influential newsweekly. Airliners.net is a popular photosharing site for airplane enthusiasts. What do they have in common? more

A Serious Bug in the Similarity Check

A week ago, ICANN announced the latest delay in the New gTLD Program: the so-called "contention sets" will only be published March 1, 2013. The original deadline was July 2012, postponed serially in two-month intervals. The gTLD program is lost in confusing similarity. What went wrong? In order to determine which TLD applications are in contention, it is necessary to say which TLD strings are confusingly similar to one another. more

The Future of Religions on the Internet

Internet is facing the biggest change in its history. New brands, ideas, groups, communities,... have now found the chance to apply for their own specific space on internet naming system through ICANN's new gTLD program. One of the most interesting points of this courageous program was the motivation it created among communities to try to represent their specific webspace on the internet by applying for their own TLD; and among them were the religious communities as well. more

Reducing the Risks of BYOD with DNS-Based Security Intelligence; Part 1: Understanding the Risks

Ah, BYOD. How I love thee. BYOD, or "Bring Your Own Device", gives me choices. I can use a device at work I actually like and am most effective with. (How did I ever get by without my iPad?) But BYOD comes with challenges. Personal devices can be infected with malware. Once they're connected to an enterprise's network, they can be controlled by a bot master to hijack enterprise resources and wreak havoc as part of a botnet. more

Trademark Clearinghouse Debate is Not About the Trademark Clearinghouse!

A comment period on the "strawman", a proposal to update the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), is currently underway. Originally planned to end on January 11, it has been extended by ICANN to February 5. The comment portal has so far received 89 email contributions. A fair number, but the real story is how many major brands have spoken out on the proposed amendments to the TMCH model. more

More on Private Auctions for New gTLDs

My recent post on private auctions for new gTLDs under contention generated many responses from applicants. Here I follow-up with answers to the questions raised... Many, but certainly not all, applicants have a strong motivation to participate in a private auction. This incentive is especially strong for domains for which the community, geographic, and other factors are not compelling. more

Rationale for New gTLD Applicant Auctions to Resolve String Contentions

As Ray King emphasized in his post on private auctions, "[m]ost importantly, let's get moving -- private auction makes business sense, provides clarity and speeds the process for everyone." In the "get moving" spirit, I wish to answer a number of questions that I am frequently asked about private auctions in general and the Applicant Auctions in particular. more

Addressing 2012: Another One Bites the Dust

Time for another annual roundup from the world of IP addresses. What happened in 2012 and what is likely to happen in 2013? This is an update to the reports prepared at the same time in previous years, so lets see what has changed in the past 12 months in addressing the Internet, and look at how IP address allocation information can inform us of the changing nature of the network itself. more

To Flat or To Cap?

I don't think it's a surprise to anyone, but it's the Christmas season again and doubtless a large number of television sets will be sold as part of the annual retail festivities. But these days the devices for sale in the shops are not just televisions: today's television is perhaps better described as a media computer with a very large display. Sure, the device can tune in to radio transmissions and display them... but the device also is equipped with either a WiFi or an Ethernet jack, or both. This alone sounds like a relatively innocuous addition to the television, but it's providing to be a highly disruptive change in the traditional Internet market space. more

Follow a Phishing Case in Real Time: postfinances.com / Swiss Post

It is just another phishing case. Why should I care? I happened to receive my own copy of the phishing email message. Most Internet users will just smile bitterly before deleting it. I checked it to see why it had gone through the spam filters. It had no URL in the text but a reply-to address. So it needed a valid domain name, and had one: postfinances.com. PostFinance (without trailing "s") is the payment system of the Swiss Post. It has millions of users. more

Internet Governance Outlook 2013: “Cold Internet War” or “Peaceful Internet Coexistence”?

Anyone who expected that with the end of the Dubai ITU World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in December 2012, the heated debate on the future regulation of the Internet will slow down should remember to fairytale of the battle of the knight with the seven-headed dragon. Hardly a head is cut off, another is growing. In 2013 the discussion on Internet freedom will likely gain in sharpness. more