Blacknight objects to ICANN 74 Covid waiver

Irish registrar Blacknight has objected to ICANN’s demand that attendees at its forthcoming 74th public meeting sign a legal waiver over the potential for Covid-19 infections.

CEO Michele Neylon has written (pdf) to his ICANN counterpart and chair Maarten Botterman to complain that the waiver is “excessive” and “unreasonable”.

Neylon said he’d consulted his lawyer and concluded: “I cannot sign this waiver and I obviously cannot ask any of my staff to do so either.”

“[The lawyers] agree that you would want to reduce your liability, but you cannot expect people to grant you a blanket exclusion of liability which includes actual fault,” he wrote.

As I reported earlier in the week, registering for ICANN 74 requires attendees to agree to a waiver which states:

I knowingly and freely assume all risks related to illness and infectious diseases, including but not limited to COVID-19, even if arising from the negligence or fault of ICANN.

The four-day June meeting is set to be the first to have an in-person component — in The Hague, the Netherlands — since the pandemic began two years ago. Zoom participation will also be a prominent feature.

Attendees are strictly expected to be double or triple-vaccinated, wear masks, and socially distance while at the venue. There will also be “health checks” whenever you enter the venue.

Blacknight has no complaint about these precautions, but wants ICANN to reconsider the legal waiver.

ICANN lists the reasons I probably won’t be going to ICANN 74

“Don’t blame us if you die!”

That’s one of the messages coming out of ICANN, which has confirmed that it’s returning to in-person meetings for ICANN 74 this June.

The “hybrid” four-day meeting in The Hague is going ahead, but under strict Covid-19 mitigation rules that seem a bit too annoying for this particular potential attendee.

If you want to get in the venue, you’ll need to show proof of a full course of WHO-approved vaccinations, wear a face mask, stay an appropriate distance away from your peers, and subject yourself to a temperature check and “health screening” every time you walk through the door.

You’ll be issued a wrist-band on first entry that you have to keep visible at all times. If you lose it, you’ll have to re-verify your vaccination status.

As somebody who got irritated by even the metal detectors as pre-Covid ICANN meetings, this all seems a bit too much of a hassle for me, despite The Hague being pretty much right on my doorstep. I probably won’t go, at least not for the full four days.

There will be no on-site registration, and you’ll have to register your attendance online five days in advance of the meeting, which begins June 13.

ICANN’s also asking attendees to sign away their rights, and their children’s rights, to sue if they get sick, even if they catch the virus from general counsel John Jeffrey walking up and sneezing a Covid payload directly into their eyes.

As spotted by Michele Neylon, the registration process for ICANN 74 contains an extensive, obligatory waiver that contains the following text:

Participation in the Event includes possible exposure to and illness from infectious diseases including but not limited to COVID-19. While particular rules and personal discipline may reduce this risk, the risk of serious illness and death exists. I knowingly and freely assume all risks related to illness and infectious diseases, including but not limited to COVID-19, even if arising from the negligence or fault of ICANN. I understand that, unless otherwise confirmed in writing by ICANN, if I am suggested or required to take diagnostic tests, seek medical treatment, extend my stay due to quarantine or illness, or otherwise change travel arrangements, I am responsible for making such arrangements and all costs incurred. I understand that ICANN recommends that I obtain appropriate insurance to cover these risks.

…

I hereby knowingly assume all risks, and covenant not to sue any employees, board members, agents, executives, contractors or volunteers of ICANN or its affiliate for any expense, loss, damage, personal injury, including loss of life, illness, including but not limited to COVID-19, disability, property damage, or property theft or actions of any kind that I may hereafter suffer or sustain before, during, or after the Event, unless said expense, loss, damage, personal injury, including loss of life, illness, disability, property damage or property theft or actions of any kind is caused by the sole, gross negligence of ICANN or its affiliate. This Liability Waiver and Release is specifically binding upon my heirs and assigns and is knowingly given.

I agree to indemnify and hold ICANN and its affiliate harmless from and against any claims, suits, causes of action, loss, liability, damage or costs, including court cost and attorneys’ fees, and fees to enforce this Agreement, that ICANN may incur arising from my involvement in the Event.

This kind of waiver is par for the course with ICANN. Just ask any new gTLD applicant. ICANN really, really doesn’t like being sued.

ICANN has outlined its health-and-safety measures, which may change, here. The waiver can be read during the registration process.

Satirists register Joe Rogan domain to promote Covid vaccines

An Australian comedy troupe has registered podcaster Joe Rogan’s name as a domain as part of an anti-anti-vaccine prank.

The Chaser, which has published satire across print, radio, TV and the web for the last 20 years, picked up joerogan.com.au a few days ago and redirected it to the Aussie government’s vaccine-booking web site.

The domain was publicized in the latest edition of The Chaser’s podcast, which was rebranded “The Joe Rogan Experience” and spent most of its 20-minute runtime skewering the US comedian and martial arts commentator.

Rogan has attracted negative attention in the last week or so for his skeptical comments about Covid-19 vaccines on his podcast, which is the most-listened podcast on Spotify, the platform with which he has an exclusive $100 million distribution deal.

Musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell have pulled their work from Spotify in protest at Rogan’s words, which they said were dangerous.

Rogan has since tried to clarify his comments and editorial policy, and Spotify has said it will start to provide links to reliable Covid-19 information alongside podcasts that address the topic.

Omicron domain sells for $5,000

The domain name omicronvariant.com, hand-registered less than six months ago, has sold for $5,000 via Sedo, raising all kinds of questions about the value and future of Covid-19 variant-related domains.

The domain, at time of writing, resolves to a Sedo parking page containing ads unrelated (for me) to the pandemic or healthcare.

It was registered in early June, just a day or two after the World Health Organization announced that it would start naming coronavirus variants after letters of the Greek alphabet.

At that time, and to this day, the delta variant is the dominant strain worldwide, and yet deltavariant.com is currently listed for sale for $2,000 at GoDaddy/Uniregistry.

It seems somebody out there is willing to bet that omicron will have the transmissibility speed and longevity to outstrip delta, become dominant, and make dropping $5,000 on the matching .com a wise investment.

Assuming non-nefarious use, I personally struggle to see the end-user value.

It appears that any .com combination of a Greek letter and the word “variant” that had not already been registered by June was quickly snapped up by speculators after WHO revealed its naming scheme.

Some domains, such as alphavariant.com and xivariant.com, were already in use by companies with web sites that predate the pandemic.

The company Nu Variant seems to have dodged a bullet — WHO skipped that letter because it’s a confusing homophone of “new” in some English dialects. It also skipped xi, as it’s a common name that happens to be shared by the premier of China, which was bad luck for the xivariant.com domainer.

All the other letters between delta and omicron have been assigned to variants that fizzled out or have failed to garner much media attention.

At this point, it seems quite possible that WHO will run out of Greek letters in a matter of months, but it reportedly has no current plan for its coronavirus nomenclature after that.

Delta variant cranks up Aussie domain regs in Q3

Australia’s ccTLD had a growth spurt in the third quarter, driven by pandemic lockdown rules.

Local registry auDA today reported that it took 171,846 new domain creates in Q3, up 22% on Q2. There were over 60,500 new regs in July, making it .au’s second-biggest sales month of all time.

auDA said in its quarterly report (pdf):

This increase took place at a time when COVID-19 restrictions were re-introduced in several states, and followed a levelling out of demand and seasonal dip over Easter in Q2. However, Q3 registrations are only slightly below the same period in 2020, which experienced a historic peak in new domain names created, driven by COVID-19.

Such lockdown bumps were experienced by many registries in 2020, as bricks-and-mortar businesses rushed to get an online presence to continue functioning while stores and venues were closed.

The delta variant of Covid-19 started worrying Australia in June, leading to lockdown rules in major cities that lasted most or all of July. The country has had a relatively low incidence of the virus, but has taken a hard line on restrictions.

At the end of September, .au registrations were up 5% at 3,386,186 names, auDA said. The .com.au level names were up 6% but .net.au was down 1.5%.

Next March, Australia will follow in the footsteps of some other ccTLDs and make second-level .au domains available for the first time.

Three ICANN directors wanted to go to Puerto Rico

The ICANN board of directors’ decision to scrap the in-person component of its next public meeting was not unanimous, it has emerged.

Three directors voted against the November 4 resolution, which said ICANN 73 would be ICANN’s seventh consecutive online-only gathering, according the a preliminary board report.

The plan for months was to have a “hybrid” meeting, with some face-to-face component at the convention center in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as an intermediate step towards post-pandemic normality.

But at the time of the vote travel restrictions in the US were such that getting to Puerto Rico was tough even for fellow Americans, so ICANN’s meetings team had not been able to do on-site preparation.

Nine directors voted to make 73 virtual, with four absent during the vote, the preliminary report states.

Five directors have taken their seats since the coronavirus pandemic began, and have therefore never officially met with their board colleagues in person.

It’s not the first time the board has been split on this matter. Last year, directors Ron Da Silva and Ihab Osman voted to return to face-to-face for the October 2020 Hamburg meeting.

Da Silva is no longer on the board, but there are at least two other directors among the current line-up on the same page.

The voting breakdown will not be revealed until the board approves the November 4 minutes, which could be months if history is any guide.

ICANN abandons face-to-face plan for Puerto Rico

ICANN has canceled its plans for a “hybrid” ICANN 73, saying this morning that the meeting will go ahead as an online-only virtual meeting.

Its board of directors yesterday voted to abandon efforts to have a face-to-face component in Puerto Rico as originally planned, as I predicted a few days ago.

"Impact of COVID-19 on ICANN73". That's the same language ICANN board uses in its agenda items when it's planning for no face-to-face component. Just saying. https://t.co/TZc7lExu7N

— Kevin Murphy (@DomainIncite) November 3, 2021

ICANN of course said it’s because of the coronavirus pandemic, and more particularly the associated travel restrictions and the lack of access to vaccines in some parts of the world from which its community members hail.

The US Centers for Disease Control currently rates Puerto Rico as its second-highest risk level, meaning ICANN’s meetings staff have been unable to travel there to do on-site planning. ICANN said:

While there has been progress that might make it feasible to plan for and convene a meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico in March 2022, the current risks and uncertainties remain too high to proceed with an in-person meeting or with an in-person component.

Its board resolution stated:

Between the global inequity in vaccine availability across the world, continuing restrictions on persons from many countries or territories being allowed to enter the U.S., and backlogs in visa processing for those who are able to enter the U.S., ICANN org cannot estimate with any confidence the ability for attendees outside of the U.S. to attend ICANN73.

So 73 will be Zoom again. The time zone will remain UTC-4, Puerto Rico local time, which should make it less problematic for Europeans to attend.

The dates are still slated for March 5 to March 10 next year, but it seems likely that we’ll be looking at a March 7 kick-off, as March 5 is a Saturday and people don’t like working weekends if not somewhere they can also work on their tans.

ICANN said it “affirmed its intent” to attempt the hybrid model again for the mid-year ICANN 74 meeting, which is due to take place in The Hague, Netherlands, next June.

It’s bad news for ICANN participation, which has been declining in the new era of virtual meetings, but good news for its bank account. Virtual meetings cost a few million dollars less than in-person ones.

Marby finds his pandemic pessimism

CEO Göran Marby has spelled out his goals for ICANN’s current fiscal year, and they include a scaled-back ambition when it comes to face-to-face public meetings in the face of an ongoing pandemic.

His first enumerated goal for the year ending June 30, 2022 is:

Develop, with the community and with support from the Board, the ability to conduct hybrid meetings that are inclusive and enhance the opportunity for community interaction and decision-making.

Compare this with his equivalent goal from July 2020:

Work with Supporting Organization and Advisory Committee leaders, community members, and the Board to define and implement a phased plan to return to face-to-face meetings.

The goal of creating a “face-to-face” meetings plan has been replace with a “hybrid” meeting plan, where some section of the community can only participate online, depending on travel restrictions.

A lot has happened in the last 15 months when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic.

In June 2020, there was still some optimism in the ICANN board that the October meeting that year would go ahead in Hamburg as normal. That didn’t happen, and the face-to-face components of the three subsequent meetings have also been cancelled.

At that time, the world still hadn’t experienced the reality of Covid-19 variants, and the possibility of multiple lockdown scenarios was still largely theoretical.

So it’s probably no surprise that Marby has been forced to rein in his hopes for bumping elbows with the global community any time soon.

ICANN 72 later this month, originally planned for Seattle, will be the sixth consecutive online-only public meeting, but Marby has been tasked by the board with making the Puerto Rico meeting next March a “hybrid” affair.

Given his goals run to mid-2022, it seems possible ICANN 74, slated for The Hague next June, is also being considered most likely a hybrid meeting.

Marby has nine goals for the year in total. Seven he wrote himself, two were set by the board. Last year, he had 10 in total of which four were set by the board.

Other areas of interest coming from his own pen include greater focus on legislation around the world, emerging technologies such as blockchain naming, outreach in the developing world, DNS security and stability and prioritizing ICANN’s increasingly overwhelming workload.

Not all of them are stated as goals, at least in Marby’s blog post, and not all appear to have measurable outcomes.

The board has told him to “stimulate Universal Acceptance” and “work with Internet governance stakeholders”. Again, it’s all pretty amorphous stuff.

One 2021 goal that does not make an appearance this year is “Develop a plan for the potential economist function”, or hiring an “astrologer in chief” as I phrased it last year.

Reasonable people could disagree with whether this one was fulfilled — the economist job has been advertised on the ICANN web site all year, but does not yet appear to have been filled.

ICANN now has half a billion bucks in the bank after huge pandemic profits

ICANN, the non-profit organization with the limited technical mandate, now has over half a billion dollars in the bank, after the affects of the coronavirus pandemic boosted funding and slashed costs.

The Org ended June 2021 with cash and investments of $521 million, up $40 million over the preceding 12 months.

While some of this gain can be attributed to investment gains, the majority chunk comes from ICANN largely misjudging the length and impact of pandemic-related restrictions.

Expenses were $10 million lower than budget, because all three ICANN meetings during the year were held online, where they cost about half a million bucks a pop, about $3 million lower than in-person gatherings.

ICANN had budgeted for its 2021 meetings to take place face-to-face in venues around the world, but governmental travel restrictions made this impossible.

The Org saved well over half a million dollars in director expenses alone.

On the top half of the financial statement, the numbers also show a failure to predict how much the pandemic would be generally a boon, rather than a burden, to the domain name industry.

ICANN received $142 million in funding during the year, which was $12 million ahead of budget and $1 million more than it received in fiscal 2020.

ICANN cuts the weekend from next public meeting

ICANN has changed the dates for ICANN 72, its 2021 annual general meeting, making it two days shorter.

The old plan was for the meeting to run October 23-28. Now it will be October 25-28.

Basically, this means nobody will have to work at the weekend. October 23 is a Saturday.

The presumably truncated schedule will be published October 4.

ICANN said it made the decision “to support better working hours for attendees and encourage greater participation”.

ICANN 72 came close to having an in-person component in Seattle, but the board of directors decided last month to stick to Zoom due to ongoing pandemic uncertainties.