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auDA Domain Name News - 5 July

05/Jul/2010

auDA Domain Name News is compiled by David Goldstein on auDA's behalf. The views expressed in the news items linked from auDA's website (Linked Documents), do not necessarily reflect the views of auDA. auDA does not warrant the accuracy or reliability of the information contained in the Linked Documents, and assumes no liability to any person for any reliance placed upon any information contained in the Linked Documents.

REPORTS & RESEARCH PAPERS

Regulating the Root: The Role of ICANN as Regulator, and Accountability by Emily Alexandra Wilsdon
Abstract: The Internet is emphatically not a government free zone. A central part is ICANN, the institution which regulates the ‘root’ of the internet (the domain name system and internet protocol addresses). This a fundamental element of the architecture of the Internet. We would be, literally, lost without it. In a sense, the code of the Internet, its protocols and languages are regulation - they control how the system behaves. ICANN is the regulator who regulates that ‘regulation.’ Principles of global administrative law can, once suitably modified for the context, suggest the most effective reforms.
ssrn.com/abstract=1632885

DOMAIN NAMES

- ICANN

Accountability and Transparency Statement
ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom, ICANN senior staff and the Accountability and Transparency Review Team met in Brussels on Thursday, June 24, and agreed on the following:
icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-01jul10-en.htm

Public Comment: Proposed Bylaws Amendment in Furtherance of the Board Review Working Group Recommendation to Add One Voting Director from the At-Large Community to the ICANN Board of Directors
On 27 August 2009, the Board approved in principle the recommendation of the Board review Working Group (BRWG) to add one voting director from the At-Large Community to the ICANN Board of Directors and removing the present At-Large Advisory Committee Liaison to the ICANN Board. The BRWG issued its final report [PDF, 116 KB] in February 2010, and noted the expectation that "the selection process will be designed, approved and implemented in time for the new Director to be seated at the 2010 Annual General Meeting."
icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-01jul10-en.htm

Public Comment: Proposed Changes to the ICANN Bylaws Article XI: Advisory Committees Relating to the Membership of the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)
Pursuant to resolution 2010.06.25.04 passed by the ICANN Board at its meeting on 25 June 2010 the community is invited to provide comments on a proposed Bylaws amendments addressing the recommendations arising out of the SSAC review Working Group.
icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-02jul10-en.htm

ICANN Launches Website for Cartagena Meeting
ICANN has launched the website for its next meeting, the 39th of its thrice yearly meetings, to be held in the Colombian city of Cartagena de Indias, or 'La Heroica', the Heroic City. Cartagena is located in a bay on the Caribbean Sea.
www.domainpulse.com/2010/07/04/icann-launches-website-for-cartagena-meeting/
www.domainnews.com/en/icann-launches-cartagena-meeting-website.html

ICANN week recap in video
Last week, EURid hosted the 38th ICANN meeting in Brussels. If you were unable to join us, please watch our daily video reports produced at the conference.
www.eurid.eu/en/content/icann-week-recap-video

ICANN 38 International Meeting has approved requests for hieroglyph IDNs
On 25 June, ICANN International Meeting held in Brussels announced delegation of several new IDNs. Today China (.中国 – Simplified Chinese, 中國 – conventional Chinese), Hong-Kong (.香港) and Taiwan (.台灣) have been delegated hieroglyph top-level domains.
cctld.ru/en/news/news_detail.php?ID=831

- ccTLD & gTLD NEWS

au: Linux.conf.au requests 2012 bid proposals
... The news comes as there is still ongoing debate about the unusual domain name which the conference takes its name from. The domain name Linux.conf.au does not currently function, and Australia’s domain name regulator, .au Domain Administration, has recommended the .conf.au domain continue to lie dormant, despite ongoing interest from the Linux communty in reactivating the name.
www.itwire.com/it-industry-news/strategy/40175-linuxconfau-requests-2012-bid-proposals
www.itwire.com/it-industry-news/tenders/40175-linuxconfau-requests-2012-bid-proposals
www.zdnet.com.au/linux-conf-au-2012-host-cities-wanted-339304302.htm
www.builderau.com.au/news/soa/Linux-conf-au-2012-host-cities-wanted/0,339028227,339304302,00.htm

Australian Domain Name Registration
The idea of registering for an Australian domain name is typically comparable as anywhere else. There are particular things that must be remembered.
whatisthetrend.net/australian-domain-name-registration-20101942.html

NIC Chile lowers fees for .CL
NIC Chile announces that, starting at 0 hours (CLT) of July 1,2010, fees for registration, transfer and renewal of domain names under .CL will decrease both in Chilean pesos (CLP) and in US Dollars (USD).
nic.cl/anuncios/2010-07-01-eng.html

dk: New General conditions as of July 1 2010
www.dk-hostmaster.dk/fileadmin/filer/pdf/generelle_vilkaar/Generelle_vilkaar_vers._05-ENG.pdf

.EU registry asks: Who owns the Internet? by Brenden Kuerbis
blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2010/6/29/4565886.html

EURid launches .eu Insights
Two new studies, that take a look at particular aspects of the domain-name environment, are now available. The reports, produced by EURid as the first in a series named .eu Insights, examine:
www.eurid.eu/en/content/eurid-launches-eu-insights

HKIRC receives approval for ‘.香港’ domain from ICANN
Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Ltd (HKIRC) today announced that it has received ICANN’s approval to delegate the Chinese equivalent of the ‘.hk’ Top Level Domain, the ‘.香港’ Internationalized Domain Name Country Code Top Level Domains (IDN ccTLDs), at the ICANN board meeting in Brussels.
https://www2.hkirc.hk/company_info/pressrelease.jsp?item=199

NASK offer for ISP companies
NASK has come up with a special offer involving services for the ISP sector companies. The services are offered in competitively priced packages and allow ISP businesses to meet regulatory requirements, as well as ensure the security of solutions offered to end-users.
www.nask.pl/newsID/id/659

Cyrillic Domains Give Russian Internet Users Greater Confidence Online
Internationalised Domain Names that enable internet users whose language is a non-Latin-based script, which in effect are all non-English languages, are becoming more common. ICANN, who has been gradually approving more IDNs through ICANN’s IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process has now approved IDNs in Arabic, Cyrillic and Chinese.
goldsteinreport.com/article.php?article=11736
www.domainpulse.com/2010/07/02/cyrillic-domains-gives-russian-internet-users-greater-confidence-online/
www.domainnews.com/en/cyrillic-domains-to-give-russian-internet-users-greater-confidence-online.html

Third Registration Stage in .РФ TLD: Acceptance of Pre-orders from Specific Categories of Users
On July 15 2010 RU-CENTER launches the third Sunrise registration stage in РФ TLD.
www.nic.ru/news/en/2010/third.html

CCTLD .RU meeting has passed a critical decision regarding the landrush registration period in ccTLD .РФ
On 16 June 2010 the ccTLD .RU Board held its regular meeting at which a decision has been passed regarding the landrush period of domain names registration in ccTLD .prior to the open registration period for all applicants. The CC Board has commissioned the CC’s director, Andrey Kolesnikov, to ensure devising all necessary documents which regulate the said landrush registration procedure until 1 August 2010.
cctld.ru/en/news/news_detail.php?ID=835

The CC to join APTLD – Asia-Pacific Association of top-level domains
On its meeting on 16 June 2010, the ccTLD .RU Board ruled to have ccTLD .RU apply for membership with the Asia-Pacific Association of Top-Level Domains (APTLD).
cctld.ru/en/news/news_detail.php?ID=836

GS1 Sweden and .SE advances the Internet of Things
Together, GS1 Sweden and .SE takes an important step in the development of the Internet of Things. Jointly, they will develop an Object Naming Service (ONS), which opens up to the possibilities of connecting products to the net, and eventually get all physical objects online – an Internet of Things.
www.iis.se/en/pressmeddelanden/gs1-sweden-och-se-utvecklar-sakernas-internet

Tuvalu unhappy with internet domain name return
Tuvalu’s Finance Minister says the country isn’t getting enough money from the US company which bought the dot-tv internet domain off it.
www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=54541

The Man Who Would Be the Dot-XXX King: How ICM became the one place to buy dot-xxx Web addresses
The Internet has made Stuart Lawley a wealthy man. In 1999 he got rich by taking a British Internet service provider public. The London Sunday Times has named him one of the 1,000 richest people in Britain.
www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_28/b4186038373596.htm

Hustler, Paris Hilton Sex Sites See .xxx Domain Creating Web Porn Ghetto
Stuart Lawley has Hustler magazine and the distributor of Paris Hilton’s sex tape up in arms. The 47-year-old British Internet entrepreneur’s ICM Registry is roiling the $13 billion pornography industry after last week winning a preliminary nod for the .xxx domain from ICANN which approves Web addresses.
www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-01/hustler-paris-hilton-sex-sites-see-xxx-domain-creating-web-porn-ghetto.html

- DNS SECURITY

Cyberwar: War in the fifth domain - Are the mouse and keyboard the new weapons of conflict?
At the height of the cold war, in June 1982, an American early-warning satellite detected a large blast in Siberia. A missile being fired? A nuclear test? It was, it seems, an explosion on a Soviet gas pipeline. The cause was a malfunction in the computer-control system that Soviet spies had stolen from a firm in Canada. They did not know that the CIA had tampered with the software so that it would “go haywire, after a decent interval, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to pipeline joints and welds,” according to the memoirs of Thomas Reed, a former air force secretary. The result, he said, “was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space.”
www.economist.com/node/16478792?story_id=16478792

Cyberwar: The threat from the internet - It is time for countries to start talking about arms control on the internet
Throughout history new technologies have revolutionised warfare, sometimes abruptly, sometimes only gradually: think of the chariot, gunpowder, aircraft, radar and nuclear fission. So it has been with information technology. Computers and the internet have transformed economies and given Western armies great advantages, such as the ability to send remotely piloted aircraft across the world to gather intelligence and attack targets. But the spread of digital technology comes at a cost: it exposes armies and societies to digital attack.
www.economist.com/node/16481504

“Kill Switch” Bill: Ramifications for the DNS root zone? by Brenden Kuerbis
S.3480, The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010, introduced by Sens Lieberman, Collins and Carper quietly passed committee last week on a voice vote and is now scheduled for debate on the US Senate floor. The controversial, nearly 200-page bill which amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 has been criticized by civil liberties and industry groups alike, who say it grants the President the ability to order operators of “covered critical infrastructure” to disconnect parts of the Internet. Our reading of the bill agrees with these general criticisms. We are also concerned with specific effects on the Internet’s DNS and possible extraterritorial effects of the legislation.
blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2010/7/1/4567014.html

NTIA's NOI on signing the root goes mostly unnoticed by Brenden Kuerbis
Perhaps it's summertime blues, DNSSEC-fatigue, or simply recognition of fait accompli, but the comment period for NTIA's notice of intent to proceed with the final stages of Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) implementation in the authoritative root zone has passed with only a handful of comments submitted. (although there seems to be some fishing going on for support) Root server operator Autonomica, registry operators Nominet and Neustar, AT&T, as well as Paypal and Connotech were generally supportive of the action and congratulatory toward NTIA, VeriSign and ICANN. However, one commenter criticized that the "US government crypto culture tainted the detailed arrangements." Paypal offered its support, but with a caveat.
blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2010/6/30/4567108.html

us: Senators Urge Obama to Back Planned Cybersecurity Legislation
Seven Senate leaders late Thursday urged President Obama to support planned legislation designed to protect critical information technology systems from attacks. In a letter to Obama, the senators said they plan to produce a comprehensive cybersecurity bill, although they did not specify a timeframe.
techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2010/07/senators-urge-obama-to-back-pl.php

- DOMAIN DISPUTES

RBS wins totally bogus UDRP complaint
The Royal Bank of Scotland has been handled control of the domain rbscout.com in a UDRP decision I have no trouble at all describing as utterly bogus.
domainincite.com/rbs-wins-totally-bogus-udrp-complaint/

Why I typosquatted and why it should be legal
Alf Temme, founder of the California exercise-machine company Romfab, is the defendant in a recent Microsoft trademark-infringement lawsuit. Microsoft sued him and his company over his registration of Web addresses that were one or two keystrokes away from "hotmail.com." That practice has become known as typosquatting. This guest column is a reappropriation of a piece originally published at AboutTyposquatting.com.
blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/212541.asp

- MISCELLANEOUS

Aussie registrar trademarks “Whois”
An Australian domain name registrar has secured a trademark on the word “Whois”.
domainincite.com/aussie-registrar-trademarks-whois/

Fixing WHOIS (and Some Other Stuff Too) by Phillip Hallam-Baker
ICANN is the only institution with responsibility for the functioning of DNS. And so it is natural that when there is a DNS problem for people to expect ICANN to come up with the solution. But having the responsibility to act is not the same as having the ability. Like the IETF, ICANN appears to have been designed with the objective of achieving institutional paralysis. And this is not surprising since the first law of the Internet is 'You are so not in charge (for all values of you).
www.circleid.com/posts/20100701_fixing_whois_and_some_other_stuff_too/

New ARIN Online Features Released 26 June 2010
ARIN is pleased to announce that ARIN Online users can now create API Keys when logged in to their account.
https://www.arin.net/announcements/2010/20100629.html

How to Fix WHOIS - Part 2 by Phillip Hallam-Baker
The key to fixing any part of the Internet infrastructure is to understand the business cases for the parties whose behavior you want to influence and design the technology accordingly. People who follow this approach (Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web) have a chance of succeeding. People who ignore it (DNSSEC, IPv6) will fail. The root problem here is that the ICANN DNS does not differentiate between the parts of the Internet that are accountable and those that are not.
www.circleid.com/posts/20100702_how_to_fix_whois_part_2/

- DOMAINING & AFTERMARKET

Sex.com Back on the Block and Up for Grabs
Sedo has announced the domain name SEX.COM is back on the block following its agreement with Escom to privately broker the sale. The sale could easily break the record for the most valuable domain name.
www.domainpulse.com/2010/07/02/sexcom-back-on-the-block-and-up-for-grabs/
goldsteinreport.com/article.php?article=11735

Sex.com domain name on sale [AFP]
The world's "most valuable" Internet domain name, sex.com, went up for grabs on Thursday having fetched 12 million dollars in 2006, a German firm handling the sale said Thursday.
www.independent.co.uk/news/media/sexcom-domain-name-on-sale-2016568.html
www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/multimillion-dollar-sexcom-up-for-grabs-20100702-zrk4.html
news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-technology/sexcom-domain-name-on-sale-20100702-zqxy.html

$200 million expected from .xxx domain name
Number of the day: $200 million. That's how much money a British entrepreneur expects to make annually from selling the new .xxx Internet domain name to porn sites. Stuart Lawley plans to offer rights to the addresses for $60 each through a company called ICM Registry.
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/03/BUFT1E8U2N.DTL

Sex.com seeking a new hookup
Anyone interested in Sex.com will find an eager seller for the right price. The domain name, considered to be the Internet's most valuable, is now on the market, domain broker Sedo announced Thursday. Sedo is peddling the hot domain name on behalf of its client and current owner, Escom, which scooped it up in 2006 for an estimated $14 million. Along with the domain name, two related trademark registrations are also included.
news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-20009413-2.html

Sex.com for Sale [news release]
Sedo, the leading online domain marketplace and broker of super premium domain names, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Escom, LLC to privately broker the sale of Sex.com, widely considered to be the world’s most valuable domain name, as well as two related trademark registrations with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
sedo.com/presse/presse.php?tracked=&partnerid=&language=us&id=328

Moniker/SnapNames Celebrates America's Birthday with .US Domain Auction
To celebrate America’s birthday on 4 July, there is a Moniker/SnapNames auction that started on 1 July and runs through 8 July featuring only 86 .US domain names, according to the news release below.
www.domainnews.com/en/moniker/snapnames-celebrates-america-s-birthday-with-.us-domain-auction.html
www.domainpulse.com/2010/07/05/monikersnapnames-celebrates-americas-birthday-with-us-domain-auction/

us: A Domainer Friendly Congressional Bill
One day, domainers will wield enough power to lobby Congress and play a key part in drafting a bill to regulate and foster the domain industry. On July 4th it is particularly appropriate to fast forward to that time, hopefully in the near future, and here are a few cornerstones I would love to see in such a bill:
idnblog.com/2010/07/05/domainer-friendly-congressional/

auDA News

auDA Domain Name News - 5 July

********************** REPORTS & RESEARCH PAPERS **********************

********************** DOMAIN NAMES **********************

********************** - ICANN **********************

********************** - ccTLD & gTLD NEWS **********************

********************** - DNS SECURITY **********************

********************** - DOMAIN DISPUTES **********************

********************** - MISCELLANEOUS **********************

********************** - DOMAINING & AFTERMARKET **********************