auDA Domain Name News - Aug 5
05/Aug/2008
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.
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GOVERNANCE
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Asia Pacific Internet Community to descend on NZ for APNIC 26
Later this month, InternetNZ and APNIC will jointly host APNIC 26, one of the most important meetings in 2008 for the Asia Pacific Internet community to discuss issues relating to domain names and internet governance for the region. APNIC 26 is being held in Christchurch from 25 to 29 August 2008. The five-day meeting will continue the ongoing policy development process for the allocation of Internet resources, such as IP addresses in the Asia Pacific region. It also gives members of the Internet technical community the opportunity to continue to contribute to the ongoing development of the Internet, the importance of which is recognised by both the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and the OECD.
technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=5575
www.domainnews.com/en/general/asia-pacific-internet-community-to-descend-on-nz-for-apnic-26.html
www.domainpulse.com/2008/08/04/asia-pacific-internet-community-to-descend-on-nz-for-apnic-26/
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DOMAIN NAMES
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- ICANN
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ICANN Plans for Disaster: A Registry Failure
It's hard for most of us to imagine VeriSign failing, but for some of the other companies in the registry business, the possibility is real. The ICANN is finally taking steps to figure out what to do if a registry fails.
www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/ICANN-Plans-For-Disaster-A-Registry-Failure/
Victory for civil society representation in ICANN by Milton Mueller
The small working group created at the Paris meeting has come to an agreement about the voting distribution in ICANN’s policy making Council for domain names (the GNSO Council). It remains to the ICANN Board and staff to accept and implement this proposal, but the Board is expected to follow the consensus of the working group. (If it does not, you will hear about it here!)
blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2008/7/31/3817694.html
New NTIA Letter Worth Reading by Bret Fausett
This new letter from the NTIA to ICANN is worth reading (and worthy of dusting off the ol' ICANN.blog for a quick post). The letter, dated yesterday, essentially says that whatever happens with the JPA and ICANN's existential internal examinations, it won't affect the authority of the United States over the root zone.
blog.lextext.com/blog/_archives/2008/7/31/3818429.html
US Government wants to retain control of DNS root zone
The US government has again emphasised that it will not give up its supervisory role in the management of the root zone of the DNS. In a letter to the ICANN, the US Department of Commerce explains that, although it is "open to operational efficiency measures that address governments' legitimate public policy and sovereignty concerns" with respect to the management of their country domains, it has no plans to change its own role, or the roles of ICANN and VeriSign. VeriSign is at present entrusted with passing system changes to the 13 authoritative root servers.
www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/113758
www.heise-online.co.uk/news/US-Government-wants-to-retain-control-of-DNS-root-zone--/111227
Serbian Experts Criticize New Internet Surveillance Measures
Recently, chatting on the internet, talking on Skype (visual and audio communication through the web), or just sending a simple e- mail have become subject to clearly regulated surveillance by the Serbian security services. The Republican Telecommunications Agency [RATEL] has recently adopted the "Technical Conditions for Internet Web Subsystems, Units, Equipment, and Installation," which came into force on July 12.
www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews+articleid_2463409~title_Serbian-Experts.html
US Government wants to retain control of DNS root zone
The US government has again emphasised that it will not give up its supervisory role in the management of the root zone of the DNS.
www.heise-online.co.uk/news/US-Government-wants-to-retain-control-of-DNS-root-zone--/111227
US Not Giving Up Oversight of Domain Name Root Zone File
The United States Government has said it has no intention of giving up its oversight role of the authoritative root zone file, the file that stores the database of how domain names are reached on the internet.
www.technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=5558
www.domainpulse.com/2008/07/31/us-not-giving-up-oversight-of-domain-name-root-zone-file/
www.domainnews.com/en/general/us-not-giving-up-oversight-of-domain-name-root-zone-file.html
ICANN To Offload Domains from De-Accredited Registrar
When RegisterFly lost its ICANN accreditation, GoDaddy swooped in to take over the registration of RegisterFly clients’ domain names. It was a nice pickup for GoDaddy of nearly 1 million domain names.
domainnamewire.com/2008/07/31/icann-to-offload-domains-from-de-accredited-registrar/
ICANN Formalizes Relationship with ccTLD Manager for Thailand
ICANN has announced today that it has signed an exchange of letters with the ccTLD manager for .th-Thailand, Thai network Information Center Foundation.
icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-01aug08-en.htm
The Billion-Dollar Domain Babies
The latest ICANN plan to allow the global populace to assemble an entire domain name like www.yourname.yourname as their free choice is a revolutionary and timely decision. This now opens doors to cyber-brands like "my.ibm," "hotel.chicago," "it.jobs," "play.poker," "fly.usa" or "go.dell." Applicants will submit a non-refundable fee of US$100,000 to $500,000 for each name idea, and businesses are already jumping to get started.
ecommercetimes.com/story/The-Billion-Dollar-Domain-Babies-64042.html
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- ccTLD & gTLD NEWS
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AusRegistry Now Provides .ae Registry Services
AusRegistry International, a wholly owned subsidiary of AusRegistry, the Registry Operator for all commercial and non-commercial .au domain names (including .com.au and .gov.au), went live in the United Arab Emirates providing the Registry Software Services for the .ae ccTLD on August 3.
www.domainpulse.com/2008/08/03/ausregistry-now-provides-ae-registry-services/
www.domainnews.com/en/general/ausregistry-now-provides-.ae-registry-services.html
TRA to promote .ae domain name
The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA)Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) will start the registration and licensing process for the domain name .ae, said a top official of the authority.
www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080803032344/secIndustries/pagTelecoms%20&%20IT
Region-wide Businesses, Events and Initiatives Embrace .Asia Domains [news release]
DotAsia Organisation announced today that auction proceeds for the .Asia Sunrise and Landrush auctions reached US$7 Million after surpassing the US$6 Million mark 2 weeks ago. The top 10 list also continues to experience constant changes and exciting developments. Four new domains entered into the Top 10, including “homes.asia” (US$32,000) and “gold.asia” (US$34,125 and ongoing), while “buy.asia” (US$72,000 and ongoing) jumped into 3rd position. Making way for these were “vodka.asia” (US$25,000), “diamond.asia” (US$28,000) and “spa.asia” (US$23,200). Into the final week of the auctions, “discover.asia” remains at the top having closed at US$112,111. Live auction ticker and commentary can be found on"> www.think.asia, as the .Asia Hot-or-Not Domains Appraisal Contest awaits its Grand Prize winner of US$10,000.
www.domainpulse.com/2008/08/04/region-wide-businesses-events-and-initiatives-embrace-asia-domains/
www.domainnews.com/en/general/region-wide-businesses-events-and-initiatives-embrace-.asia-domains.html
CIRA's Whois Debacle by Michael Geist
I've written in the past about the hugely disappointing CIRA decision to backtrack on its WHOIS policy and create backdoor access for special interests. CIRA has now posted the minutes (1, 2, 3) associated with the decision-making process and the deep divide within the board becomes immediately evident. The minutes show a split board vote on the issue, two days of debate, supplementary comments from five board members explaining their vote, concerns about the lack of transparency, and a decision-making process that violated the central tenets of policy making.
www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3237/125/
CNNIC Releases the 22nd Statistical Report on the Internet Development in China - With the Largest Amount of both Netizens and ccTLDs in the World, a Big Internet Power Is Taking Shape
by the end of June 2008, the amount of netizens in China had reached 253 million, surpassing that in the United States to be the first place in the world. This is according to a newly released Suvery Repot by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).
www.cnnic.net.cn/html/Dir/2008/07/31/5247.htm
The AFNIC published its response to the public consultation on the management of the French Internet domains [news release]
On April 28th, 2008, the public authorities started a public consultation about the management of French Internet domains: .fr, .re, .gp, .mq, etc. The AFNIC today published the response which it submitted to the authorities.
www.afnic.fr/actu/nouvelles/general/CP20080704_en
"I Love .SG" National Day Promotion!
SGNIC has announced a promotion for the month of August as part of the nation's 43rd birthday with the cost of .sg domain names capped at SGD$5 or less.
www.domainpulse.com/2008/08/04/i-love-sg-national-day-promotion/
www.domainnews.com/en/general/i-love-.sg-national-day-promotion.html
"I Love .SG" National Day Promotion! Pay SGD$5 or less for a domain name during August 2008! [news release]
Singapore turns 43 this August and SGNIC joins in the celebration for our nations's birthday! From 1 August till 31 August 2008, registration fees for domain names under the ".sg" and ".per.sg" extensions will be capped at a maximum price of SGD$5.00!! This promotion will be available at all participating registrars.
nic.net.sg/newsroom/20080801104848.html
Second .sport gTLD Proposal Launched
ICANN's recent announcement they will begin a process to approve more gTLDs (generic Top Level Domains) has generated significant interest with a number of proposals mooted. One TLD that seems to be popular is .sport with two proposals announced. The second is dotSport LLC, a consortium led by its founder and chief executive officer Ron Andruff (former CEO and founder of Tralliance Corporation, the .travel Registry).
technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=5576
www.domainpulse.com/2008/08/04/second-sport-gtld-proposal-launched/
www.domainnews.com/en/general/second-.sport-gtld-proposal-launched.html
.tel launch raises questions
There are many common features in the Telnic Sunrise Policy and the old .eu Sunrise Policy (examples: right to register the transliteration of a trademark with special characters, or the nominal part of a logo when the word element is predominant), though it will be slightly easier to provide the validation agent with the documentary evidence in .tel applications.
domaine.blogspot.com/2008/07/tel-launch-raises-questions.html
uk: Registrar satisfaction telephone survey [news release]
Nominet is currently using an external research agency to carry out a telephone survey about our customer service levels.
www.nominet.org.uk/news/latest/?contentId=5498
New Nominet DRS Policy and Procedure and online system go live [news release]
The new DRS Policy and Procedure are now effective and we have incorporated the DRS process into our online services.
www.nominet.org.uk/news/latest/?contentId=5478
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- DNS SECURITY
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Cyveillance Reports Significant Increase in Phishing Attacks [news release]
Cyveillance, the world leader in cyber intelligence, today announced that 367 unique brands were first-time victims of targeted phishing attacks during the first half of 2008, representing an 80 percent increase over the second half of 2007. As noted in Cyveillance’s upcoming 1H 2008 “Online Financial Fraud and Identity Theft Report”, this increase in phishing attacks on new brands represents close to 20 percent of all new attacks since 2005.
cyveillance.com/web/news/press_rel/2008/2008-07-31.asp
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- DOMAIN DISPUTES
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June Court Decision Detrimental to Domaining Practices by Eric Goldman
In a June court ruling, domainer Navigation Catalyst and registrar Basic Fusion lost a cybersquatting lawsuit to Verizon. ... This is an extremely interesting and potentially precedent-setting case regarding domaining and domain name tasting. The court condemns both practices, leading to a preliminary injunction against the domainer and its registrar based on the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA).
www.circleid.com/posts/88214_court_decision_detrimental_to_domaining/
ADR picking up in internet and e-commerce law
Although internet law and e-commerce have been lagging behind other areas of law with respect to alternative dispute resolution, things are beginning to change, Michael Erdle tells Law Times.
www.lawtimesnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4192&Itemid=82
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- IPv4/IPv6
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Used but Unallocated by Leo Vegoda
In February I commented about how we have been doing some research into the use of unallocated address space on the Internet. I hoped that I could give a report on the results sooner than this but the work has now been done and the results have been made public.
blog.icann.org/?p=347
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- MISCELLANEOUS
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au: Registry ready to take on the world
Local domain name registrar AusRegistry has taken its first global expansion steps and has signed a deal to provide services in the Middle East. Over the weekend it began providing registry software and database maintenance services for the .ae domain name in the United Arab Emirates.
www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24128535-15306,00.html
Netcraft July 2008 Web Server Survey
In the July 2008 survey we received responses from 175,480,931 sites. The web has grown by 3.14 million sites over the past month, with Apache web servers increasing by 2.2 million and Microsoft IIS by 1.4 million.
news.netcraft.com/archives/2008/07/07/july_2008_web_server_survey.html
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- DOMAINING & AFTERMARKET
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Dark Blue Sea June 2008 Quarterly Update
Dark Blue Sea Ltd released an update on its quarterly performance for the three months to 30 June, 2008. As advised with the release of the March 2006 quarterly cash flow statement, the Company will no longer lodge Appendix 4C statements with the Australian Stock Exchange. The company has previously announced some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) coincident with these releases. It is the company's intention to continue to release these KPIs on a quarterly basis.
newsstore.smh.com.au/apps/previewDocument.ac?docID=GCA00866716DBS
DBS: Domain Parking Continues Downward Spiral
Australian domain name company Dark Blue Sea, which runs Fabulous, reported another drop in domain parking revenue in its latest quarterly update. Just two months ago Domain Name Wire wrote about how the company’s parking revenue from its 600,000 domains was down 18% in just one quarter.
domainnamewire.com/2008/08/04/dbs-domain-parking-continues-downward-spiral/
A New Flavor For Delicious
Yahoo's bookmark-sharing site Delicious finally launched its long-awaited 2.0 version, almost two and a half years after Yahoo bought the site.
blog.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2008/08/a_new_flavor_for_delicious.html
Should you join the internet “land grab”?
In June, the governing body for internet domain names approved a “land grab” for new web addresses, allowing Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and Cyrillic characters to be used for the first time. So should you start defensively registering domains to avoid being gazumped by cybersquatters?
www.realbusiness.co.uk/news/internet-business/5352161/should-you-join-the-internet-land-grab.thtml
Del.icio.us Rebrands as Delicious.com: A Lesson for Entrepreneurs
Social bookmarking site Delicious has flipped the switch on its brand, encouraging users to visit the easy-to-remember Delicious.com instead of the often typod del.icio.us.
domainnamewire.com/2008/08/01/delicious-rebrands-as-deliciouscom-a-lesson-for-entrepreneurs/
Domain Parking Pages to Be Excluded From Google's Advertising Network?
The following news story has been posted without confirmation. Even so, how long will it be before Google and Yahoo eliminate certain domains from its network in order to get click fraud under control. At the recent T.R.A.F.F.I.C Conference in Orlando, a Google executive made an appearance and warned domainers that Google was going ot be taking more aggressive action against click fraud. The suggestion is that some domainers create clicks, through software programs or human schemes, on the ads on their parked pages in order to fraudulently create adword revenue. Of course, advertisers using the Google adwords program are getting better at auditing click fraud and asking for refunds from Google.
tcattorney.typepad.com/anticybersquatting_consum/2008/08/domain-parking.html
5 Ways to Make More Money with Domain Parking
As domain parking revenue drops, sitting around and complaining won’t do you any good.
domainnamewire.com/2008/08/01/5-ways-to-make-more-money-with-domain-parking/
The Bad Image of Domainers
Eric Goldman, Assistant Professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law and Director of the school’s High-Tech Law Institute, made a post about domain lawsuits on his blog yesterday.
www.dmueller.com/2008/08/03/domain-names-domains/the-bad-image-of-domainers/
Pair of 6-Figure .Org Sales Soar to Top Spot on DN Journal's Weekly Top 20 Chart
Six-figure .org sales are rare but we saw a pair of them this week with Ringtones.org and Revolution.org commanding $120,000 apiece. Only one .org sale this year was higher - Sexe.org ("sex" in French) which sold for $151,400 last month. Ringtones.org was sold in Moniker's live auction at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East in May and just closed this past week. Revolution.org changed hands at Sedo.com, a venue that placed more names on our weekly Top 20 chart than any other with nine.
dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2008/domainsales07-29-08.htm
Microsoft tries to one-up Google PageRank
Though a distant third place to Google, Microsoft thinks it can teach its rival a thing or two about searching the Internet. A big part of Google's rise to search engine leadership was an algorithm called PageRank that assesses a specific page's importance by how many other Web pages link to it and by the importance of those linking pages.
news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9999038-93.html
Domainer's Magazine Raises the Bar in the Domain Media Industry [news release]
Domainer's Magazine has launched a new website that allows viewers to post their own articles, comment on articles and view real time auctions from several top auction houses in real time.
www.domainpulse.com/2008/08/04/domainers-magazine-raises-the-bar-in-the-domain-media-industry/
www.domainnews.com/en/general/domainers-magazine-raises-the-bar-in-the-domain-media-industry.html
Fabulous and TRAFFIC Down Under Donating All Profits to ICA
DomainNameNews has learned that Fabulous.com and TRAFFIC will be announcing later today that they are donating all profits from the forthcoming TRAFFIC Down Under domain conference to the Internet Commerce Association (ICA).
www.domainnamenews.com/events/fabulous-and-traffic-down-under-donating-all-profits-to-ica/1902
