HTC dumps its dot-brand

Mobile phone manufacturer HTC has become the latest dot-brand operator to get out of the new gTLD game.

The $4.3 billion-a-year Taiwanese firm has told ICANN that it no longer wishes to run .htc as a dot-brand registry and ICANN has signaled its intent to terminate the contract.

It becomes the 27th dot-brand, from the hundreds that have entered contracts over the last few years, to change its mind about owning a vanity gTLD.

Most recently, fast food chain McDonalds and kitchen utensils company Pampered Chef both dumped their respective dot-brands.

Like the previous terminations, HTC never actually did anything with .htc; it only had the contractually mandated nic.htc in its zone file.

Comment Tagged: .htc, dot-brands, ICANN, new gTLDs, termination

Halloran made ICANN’s first chief data protection officer

ICANN lifer Dan Halloran has added the title of chief data protection officer to his business card.

The long-serving deputy general counsel was named ICANN’s first CDPO on Friday, continuing to report to his current boss, general counsel John Jeffrey.

Privacy is currently the hottest topic in the ICANN community, with considerable debate about how contracted parties might be able to reconcile their ICANN obligations with forthcoming European data protection legislation.

But Halloran’s new role only covers the protection of personal data that ICANN itself handles; it does not appear to give him powers in relation to ongoing discussions about how registries and registrars comply with data privacy regulations.

He will be tasked with overseeing privacy frameworks for data handling and conducting occasional reviews, ICANN said.

ICANN has on occasion messed up when it comes to privacy, such as when it accidentally published the home addresses of new gTLD applicants in 2012, or when it made sensitive applicant financial data openly searchable on its applicant portal.

Halloran joined ICANN over 17 years ago and before his deputy GC position served as chief registrar liaison.

Comment Tagged: ICANN, privacy

Verisign confirms first price increase under new .net contract

Verisign is to increase the wholesale price of an annual .net domain registration by 10%, the company confirmed yesterday.

It’s the first in an expected series of six annual 10% price hikes permitted under its recently renewed registry agreement with ICANN.

The annual price of a .net registration, renewal, or transfer will go up from $8.20 to $9.02, effective February 1, 2018

If all six options are exercised, the price of a .net would be $15.27 by the time the current contract expires, including the $0.75 ICANN fee. It would be $14.52 without the ICANN fee.

The increase was confirmed by CEO Jim Bidzos as Verisign reported its second-quarter earnings yesterday.

For the quarter, Verisign saw net income go up to $123 million from $113 million a year ago, on revenue that was up 0.7% at $289 million.

It now has cash of $1.8 billion, up $11 million on a year ago.

It ended the quarter with 144.3 million .com and .net names in its registry, up 0.8% on last year and 0.68 million sequentially.

Comment Tagged: .net, earnings, ICANN, pricing, verisign

EFF recommends against new gTLDs

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has recommended that domain registrants concerned about intellectual property “bullies” steer clear of new gTLDs.

The view is expressed in a new EFF report today that is particularly critical of policies in place at new gTLD portfolio registries Donuts and Radix.

The report (pdf) also expresses strong support for .onion, the pseudo-TLD available only to users of the Tor browser and routing network, which the EFF is a long-term supporter of.

The report makes TLD recommendations for “security against trademark bullies”, “security against identity theft and marketing”, “security against overseas speech regulators” and “security against copyright bullies”.

It notes that no one TLD is “best” on all counts, so presents a table explaining which TLD registries — a broad mix of the most popular gTLD and ccTLD registries — have which relevant policies.

For those afraid of trademark “bullies”, the EFF recommends against 2012-round new gTLDs on the basis that they all have the Uniform Rapid Suspension service. It singles out Donuts for special concern due to its Domain Protected Marks List, which adds an extra layer of protection for trademark owners.

On copyright, the report singles out Donuts and Radix for their respective “trusted notifier” schemes, which give the movie and music industries a hotline to report large-scale piracy web sites.

These are both well-known EFF positions that the organization has expressed in previous publications.

On the other two issues, the report recommends examining ccTLDs for those which don’t have to kowtow to local government speech regulations or publicly accessible Whois policies.

In each of the four areas of concern, the report suggests taking a look at .onion, while acknowledging that the pseudo-gTLD would be a poor choice if you actually want people to be able to easily access your web site.

While the opinions expressed in the report may not be surprising, the research that has gone into comparing the policies of 40-odd TLD registries covering hundreds of TLDs appears on the face of it to be solid and possibly the report’s biggest draw.

You can read it here (pdf).

3 Comments Tagged: copyright, donuts, eff, new gTLDs, radix, trademarks, whois

auDA chair quits days before vote to fire him

The chair of .au registry auDA has quit the job just three days before members were due to vote on a motion to fire him.

Stuart Benjamin, who took on the role in late 2015, faced a special member meeting on Monday that had just one resolution on its agenda:

That Stuart Benjamin be removed as a director of the Company with immediate effect.

Benjamin said today: “I have reached the view that there is no possible positive outcome for the organisation from the vote planned for Monday.”

That could mean he anticipated losing the vote, but it could also mean that he viewed a narrow victory as just as bad an outcome, optically, for auDA.

The confidence vote had been on the agenda due to a campaign at Grumpy.com.au organized by domainer/blogger Ned O’Meara.

Grumpy’s supporters reckon auDA has gone to the dogs over the last couple of years, with staff quitting or being fired en masse and an unwelcome culture of secrecy being imposed.

But Benjamin wrote:

As Chair I have overseen an increase in policy generation, in effective oversight, and in good governance.

We have also commissioned some of the largest member consultation projects in auDA’s history.

However, the auDA Board and members need to forge a different way of working together and I think there is a better chance for that to happen if I step away.

One bone of contention had been a new “code of conduct” that allowed auDA to revoke membership from any member who harassed or bullied staff.

Grumpy had opposed this measure because the code also included a gag order barring members from criticizing auDA in the media.

Benjamin took the opportunity to address this in his resignation announcement today, saying:

Everyone at auDA is open to robust criticism on strategy, policy and decision-making – that interaction makes us stronger. When that healthy engagement devolves into personal attacks on board members, the capacity of the organisation to attract and retain good people is affected.

I will continue to take a stand against cyber bullying and will not be deterred in standing up to anyone who thinks it is acceptable to personally attack staff and directors. I do not want my experiences to discourage others from running for election, or accepting an appointment, to this important organisation.

Another fractious issue, auDA’s decision to build a new in-house registry infrastructure, appears to have softened this week also.

The special general meeting is to proceed as planned on Monday. The only other items on the agenda are a CEO’s report and “any other business”.

Benjamin’s resignation letter to the .au community can be read here.

1 Comment Tagged: .au, auda, grumpy.com.au