domain name, WSIS & governance news - 5 December

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.com.au>]

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WSIS & GOVERNANCE
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Read the letter that won the internet governance
battle
The World Summit in Tunis last month was overshadowed
by the global argument over internet governance. Its
biggest controversy came with the proposition put
forward by the EU a month earlier that there be a new
inter-governmental body that oversee ICANN. The US
government was furious and launched an enormous
lobbying campaign, both public and private, across the
board to retain its position. Most significant among
all those lobbying efforts was a letter sent from the
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to the UK
foreign minister Jack Straw acting in the role of
presidency of the EU.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/02/rice_eu_letter/

Debate on Internet ownership continues
At the recent WSIS, delegates from the 174
participating countries met with the aim of bridging
the "digital divide" that separates rich and poor
nations.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/12/02/spark.internet.ownership/index.html

Who Controls the Internet?
The recently-concluded second phase of WSIS II held at
Tunis took some far-reaching decisions and pushed
others to a later day, in what is seen by many
observers as inevitable compromises.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200512020240.html

Gender Missing in WSIS Document
The Gender Caucus has observed with disappointment why
the document of WSIS failed to pay attention on gender
issues.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200512020472.html

ng: Country Fails to Impress at WSIS
"I am not impressed with Nigeria's participation when
it comes to our stand in WSIS. I think it leaves much
to be desired. Perhaps we will do better with more
co-ordination for the future and make sure that when
next we come for an event like this, our stand would
be something compared with what we had in Egypt during
the ITU Africa Conference".
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200511300146.html

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DOMAIN NAMES
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au: auDA seeks public input as domain rules change
Australia's domain name regulator is to seek public
input as it reviews the rules for registering certain
types of Australian domains.

http://zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/auDA_seeks_public_input_as_domain_rules_change/0,2000061791,39225675,00.htm

http://www.optusnet.com.au/news/story/zdnet/20051202/18/tech/0,2000061791,39225675,00.inp

Porn domain faces further delays
Plans to set up a .xxx domain for internet sex
websites have been delayed again.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4491430.stm
 http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39239843,00.htm

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/01/icann_kills_xxx/

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,17435299%5E15342%5E%5Enbv%5E15306-15319,00.html
 http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411419/635036

ICANN goes floppy on porn domain
The proposed .xxx porn domain has been mysteriously
dropped from ICANN?s board meeting agenda.

http://www.pcw.co.uk/vnunet/news/2147050/icann-goes-floppy-porn-domain

The XXX Train Wreck in Vancouver By Milton Mueller
It is now clear that by sending its letter of August
12 blocking approval of the .XXX domain, the US
Government has done more to undermine ICANN?s status
as a non-governmental, multi-stakeholder policy body
than any of its Internet governance ?enemies? in the
ITU, China, Brazil, or Iran. And despite all the calls
for a government role that would ensure ?rule of law?
and ?accountability? of ICANN, the interventions of
governments are making this aspect of Internet
governance more arbitrary and less accountable.

http://www.circleid.com/posts/the_xxx_train_wreck_in_vancouver/

Too Late to Comment...Except on .XXX
Here's a reasonable subject for outrage. Earlier this
week, ICANN quietly posted the independent evaluators'
reports on the most recent round of sTLDs. One of the
purported reasons for posting them now, at least from
what I've overheard in the hallway, is that the
Governmental Advisory Committee has asked for the
reports in order to evaluate .XXX.

http://blog.lextext.com/blog/_archives/2005/12/2/1431946.html

Rush expected on EU domain name
EU companies and public bodies are expected to rush to
register addresses for the new .eu domain when it is
launched next week, the EU says.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4490140.stm

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/ecommerce/0,39020372,39240109,00.htm

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-1899126,00.html

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,69731,00.html

http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39154771,00.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/01/AR2005120100800.html
 http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=11740

New .eu domain 'as important as .com'
European Information Society Commissioner Viviane
Reding said on Thursday that she expected ?several
hundreds of thousands? of companies to apply to use
the new .eu domain name.
 http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=5342

http://infoworld.com/article/05/12/01/HNeudomain_1.html

 .eu ? Do you get the point?
This weeks sees the launch of the '.eu' domain name,
explains Vivianne Reding, European Commissioner for
Information Society and Media.

http://www.eupolitix.com/EN/News/200512/9d2e27ac-6498-4097-938f-e91ae190a8dd.htm

.eu, Europe?s Own Internet Domain: Frequently Asked
Questions

http://www.webhostdir.com/news/articles/shownews.asp?id=13943

ICANNwiki
A wiki set up to cover the ICANN conference in
Vancouver with lots of information and photos of
attendees!
 http://icannwiki.org/index.php/Main_Page

Lextext in Vancouver
Bret Fausett has oodles more coverage of the ICANN
Vancouver meeting. See:
 http://blog.lextext.com/blog/icann

VeriSign-ICANN Proposed Settlement Discussed in
Vancouver
So, here goes. I am somewhat disappointed by the
reaction to the proposed settlement. I feel that most
of the discussion fails to take into account the
actual conditions under which the settlement has been
negotiated. Blatant self interest is masquerading as
informed comment, most obviously from the Registrar
community. Most amazing of all is the failure to grasp
the enormity of what the ICANN board and staff has
achieved with this proposed settlement, the
ramifications of which will be positive for all ICANN
constituencies for many years ahead.

http://www.circleid.com/posts/verisign_icann_proposed_settlement_discussed_in_vancouver/

The Royal Reading of the Reports by Bret Fausett
If there's one thing that ICANN can do to cut down on
the length of its meetings, it's this: dispense with
the "reading of reports."

http://blog.lextext.com/blog/_archives/2005/12/3/1433528.html

"Specific Comments"
I can't tell you how many times over the last week
I've heard members of the ICANN Board ask for
"specific" or "concrete" comments on the new .COM
Registry Agreement and the proposed settlement. It
only occurred to me at the airport why that's not
possible.

http://blog.lextext.com/blog/_archives/2005/12/2/1432684.html

Splitting the Root: It's Too Late By John Levine
One of the consistent chants we've always heard from
ICANN is that there has to be a single DNS root, so
everyone sees the same set of names on the net, a
sentiment with which I agree. Unfortunately, I
discovered at this week's ICANN meeting that due to
ICANN's inaction, it's already too late. Among the
topics that ICANN has been grinding away at is
Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) that contain
characters outside the traditional English ASCII
character set.

http://www.circleid.com/posts/splitting_the_root_its_too_late/

ICANN Publishes Latest Newsletter
In conjunction with its meetings in Vancouver, ICANN
has published it latest newsletter - now available for
download.
 http://icann.org/newsletter/newsletter-dec2005.pdf

ICANN Publishes Latest Newsletter
In conjunction with its meetings in Vancouver, ICANN
has published it latest newsletter - now available for
download.
 http://icann.org/newsletter/newsletter-dec2005.pdf

ICANN Publishes Report on Implementation of the Whois
Data Reminder Policy (WDRP)
 http://icann.org/whois/wdrp-survey-report-30nov05.pdf

Masters of their domain (name), rightists nix 'XXX'
for web
Plans to establish a ".xxx" Internet domain for porn
are foundering under attack from conservative
organizations and protest from the U.S. Department of
Commerce.
 http://www.nypost.com/business/58848.htm

ICANN authority attacked again
Fresh from the latest on-again, off-again debate over
the creation of the .xxx domain, ICANN has found
itself embroiled in another Top Level Domain (TLD)
controversy. This time it's about who will administer
the lucrative .com domain.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051203-5679.html

ALAC Meets the ICANN Board
For three years, I've been a member of ICANN's
"Interim" At-Large Advisory Committee, ALAC. At this
Vancouver meeting, for the first time, the ICANN Board
met with us, and Bret captured it on mp3 for podcast.
ALAC criticized ICANN's proposed settlement with
VeriSign, and then spoke about the problems with the
current structure for at-large participation.

http://www.circleid.com/posts/alac_meets_the_icann_board/

The "Parked Domain Monetization" Business
I think that a large number of people buying domains
can't get their first choice name because some "parked
domain monetization" operation (cyber-squatter) owns
it and is making money running ads on the page. The
trick is to sign up for millions of domain names; set
up pages and run ads on them; after 1 day delete
domains that have no traffic; after 3 days delete
names that have some traffic; after 5 days delete
pages with marginal traffic; keep the 1% of pages that
have enough traffic to be worth keeping the domain.
Because of the refund policy, the 99% of pages deleted
before the 5 day grace period are refunded in full and
the "monetizer" gets to keep the ad revenue generated
over those 5 days. ...Interestingly, I think Google
AdSense probably has boosted the viability of this
business.

http://www.circleid.com/posts/the_parked_domain_monetization_business/

Netcraft December 2005 Web Server Survey
In the December 2005 survey we received responses from
74,353,258 sites. That's a decrease of 219.5K sites
from the November survey, marking the first decline in
the Netcraft survey since January 2003.

http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2005/12/02/december_2005_web_server_survey.html

EC opens investigation into dotcom contract
The European Commission has opened an investigation
into the new dotcom contract following a formal
complaint by a lobbying group calling itself the
Coalition for ICANN Transparency (CFIT).

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/03/ec_dotcom_investigation/

VeriSign's channel revolting over .com
VeriSign Inc faces significant opposition from its
channel of domain name registrars over a proposed deal
with the ICANN that would allow the company to raise
the price of a .com registration.

http://commentwire.com/article_news.asp?guid=27CC5A72-5319-4D92-B66B-151B9F6AB6A7

Secure DNS faces resistance
The deployment of DNSsec, an enhancement to the domain
name system that could protect against certain types
of phishing and pharming attacks, is still facing
skepticism and resistance from those who would be
involved in implementing it.

http://commentwire.com/article_news.asp?guid=5CB02292-1149-4657-BA91-3F67AA4C91B5

Shenmue domain pending renewal
ShenmueSega better get those interns in check. Someone
forgot to renew the Shenmue.com domain, which expired
on the 19th.
 http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000687070194/

ICANN Plays Down U.S. Influence
aychamo writes "The ICANN is denying that it gives the
US government too much control over its operations.

http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/02/1326228

ICANN Lawsuit Update: Judge Rules in ICANN's Favor and
Denies Application for Temporary Restraining Order
A US Federal Judge has ruled in ICANN's favor and
denied an application for a Temporary Restraining
Order (TRO) against ICANN sought by industry group
CFIT in the US District Court, Northern District of
California. The application for a TRO was an attempt
to block the proposed settlement of a long-standing
dispute between ICANN and VeriSign. ICANN continues to
seek comment from the public and its various
stakeholder groups on the proposed settlement during
this week's ICANN meetings taking place in Vancouver,
Canada.

http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-30nov05.htm

ICANN and VeriSign get temporary lawsuit reprieve
VeriSign Inc will have to wait until next year before
its controversial proposal to run .com for another
five years, possibly gaining the ability to raise
prices, is decided.

http://cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=5B107880-A641-4F30-AF9E-A84E31145E31
 http://internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3567916

ICANN shrugs off dotcom lawsuits
Internet overseeing organisation ICANN has dimissed
two lawsuits against it as "attempts to manipulate the
public comment process" over future ownership of all
dotcoms.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/01/icann_dismisses_lawsuits/

Industry Groups Sue VeriSign, ICANN
Over the years, VeriSign has weathered much
controversy as a result of its control over the two
most popular domain registries. Most recently, the
company's SiteFinder service, which redirected all
unknown or unregistered .com or .net domain names to
the VeriSign Web site, was the subject of much
criticism.
 http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=39822

http://smh.com.au/news/breaking/verisign-icann-face-antitrust-lawsuits/2005/11/30/1133026497651.html

http://www.turks.us/article.php?story=20051130141323730
 http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=11710

http://technewsworld.com/story/difvAAbDEFtmuC/Groups-Say-ICANN-VeriSign-Deal-Needs-Anti-Trust-Review.xhtml
 http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/47635.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/30/icann_versign_sued/

http://domaintimes.net/newseng.php?mhnews_id=306&mhnews_newsid=6825&mhnews_page=1

ICANN AND Verisign Sued by WADND.COM for Price Fixing
and Monopolizing ".COM" Domain Name Market (news
release)
WADND.COM files lawsuit against ICANN and Verisign
alleging that the two have engaged in antitrust
activities, including conspiracy, monopolization,
illegal price fixing and monopolizing ?.com? and
?.net? domain name markets. The suit alleges that the
two are on the verge of entering ?an unlawful
agreement [that gives VeriSign a permanent monopoly
over the all ?.com? and ?.net? internet domain name
registrations.?
 http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/11/prweb316152.htm

Choosing your domain name
Domain names are the web addresses (www.) that
visitors type in to access your website online. There
are a number of factors to consider when choosing
domain names and they are briefly explored in this
article.

http://www.everywoman.co.uk/technology/article.asp?id=1608&switch=true

ICANN cancela los dominios .XXX
Lo que uba ser el dominio de cabecera dedicado al
negocio más efectivo de Internet, que no es otro que
el porno, se cae por el camino. Alguien a apretado al
ICANN para su cancelación.
 http://www.hispazone.com/contnoti.asp?IdNoticia=1814

NIC México fortalece infraestructura para los dominios
.MX
Con este desarrollo, la red de servidores de DNS para
el código territorial .MX ahora está conformada por 5
nodos: 4 de ellos globales (Monterrey, Ciudad de
México, San José, CA y San Francisco, CA) y un nodo
local en Nueva York.

http://www.latinoamericann.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1158&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Un nuevo sistema permite registrar cualquier palabra
como dominio de Internet
Una compañía holandesa ha anunciado el lanzamiento de
un nuevo servicio de direcciones de Internet que
admite la eliminación de los hasta ahora tan comunes
dominios como .com o .edu y permite a empresas y
particulares registrar direcciones de Internet que
terminen con el nombre de su organización o
prácticamente con cualquier palabra que elijan.

http://www.latinoamericann.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1157&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

El número de dominios .es crece un 72% desde junio
El ministro de Industria, Turismo y Comercio, José
Montilla, ha explicado en el Senado que la decisión
que tomó el Gobierno el pasado mes de mayo de
flexibilizar las normas exigibles para la asignación
de nombres de dominio bajo el indicativo .es, y una
significativa reducción de las tasas de dicho dominio,
?han sido muy positivas?.

http://www.latinoamericann.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1156&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Se retrasa la aprobación del dominio ".XXX"
Las propuestas para crear un dominio de internet
".xxx" que agrupe a los contenidos de carácter
pornográfico no saldrán adelante, al menos por el
momento, ya que el organismo regulador ha vuelto a
retrasar la discusión del asunto, informa EFE. La
propuesta para crear este dominio iba a aprobarse en
la reunión que mantiene estos días en Vancouver
(Canadá) el ICANN, organismo que controla el sistema
de direcciones en la Red.

http://www.latinoamericann.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1155&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Empresas podrán solicitar dominio .eu a partir del día
7
Las empresas europeas podrán a partir del próximo día
7 registrar su nombre con el dominio de internet .eu,
que se ampliará posteriormente a ciudadanos privados,
anunció hoy la Comisión Europea.

http://www.latinoamericann.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1154&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

ICANN Publica el Reporte sobre Implementación de la
Politica de Datos sobre el Whois (WDRP)
El documento [en ingles] presenta un reporte entre
Diciembre del 2004 y el 2005 de la Politica
implementada sobre Datos del Whois (politica adoptada
el 31 de Octubre del 2003)

http://www.latinoamericann.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1153&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

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Check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/dn-news for
the latest domain news. By close of business 8
December, a more recent edition of the news should be
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Also see
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for an archive and to subscribe to the domain name or
general internet news.

Sources include Quicklinks <http://qlinks.net/> and
BNA Internet Law News <http://www.bna.com/ilaw/>.

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(c) David Goldstein 2005

David Goldstein
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