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.vu to relaunch under mystery new registry

Kevin Murphy, March 17, 2019, Domain Registries

Vanuatu is to attempt to broaden the appeal of its .vu domain globally by switching to a new shared registry system.
The changes were initiated last week in Kobe, when the ICANN board of directors gave the final stamp of approval on the redelegation of the ccTLD.
.vu is now delegated to country’s Telecommunications Radiocommunications and Broadcasting Regulator (TRBR), having been managed since 1995 by Telecom Vanuatu Limited (TVL). The government passed a law in 2016 calling for the redelegation.
Under its new management, the market for .vu domains will be opened up at the registrar level. To date, TVL has operated as a sole source for .vu domains. From now on, it will just be one registrar among (presumably) many.
A registry back-end has already been selected, after tenders were received from nine companies, but it’s still in contract talks and TRBR is not ready to name the successful party just yet.
The Vanuatu government wants to encourage local ISPs and web developers to consider signing up as registrars or resellers, but the SRS will also be open to established international players.
Brand protection registrars and TLD completionists will no doubt begin to carry .vu directly as soon as they’re able to plug in to the new system.
But off the top of my head, I’m struggling to think of a strong global sales pitch for the string, other than a phonetic similarity to “view”.
It doesn’t stand for much as an acronym, doesn’t seem to work well in English as a domain hack, and doesn’t seem to mean much in other widely spoken languages (other than French, where it means “seen”, as in “déjà-vu”).
We can only hope the new management doesn’t attempt to market it with some kind of pathetic backronym.
Domains in .vu currently cost $50 (USD) per year when bought from TVL. I have no current data on how many .vu domains are registered.
InternetNZ’s Keith Davidson assisted in the redelegation and is handling comms during the handover.
Vanuatu is a Pacific archipelago nation, previously known as the New Hebrides, that gained independence from the UK and France in 1980. It had roughly 272,000 inhabitants at the last count.

ICANN plays tough over Amazon dot-brands

Kevin Murphy, March 12, 2019, Domain Policy

ICANN has given Amazon and the governments of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization less than a month to sort out their long-running dispute over the .amazon gTLD.
The organization’s board of directors voted on Sunday to give ACTO and the e-commerce leviathan until April 7 to get their shit together or risk not getting what they want.
But both parties are going to have to come to an agreement without ICANN’s help, with the board noting that it “does not think that any further facilitation efforts by ICANN org will be fruitful”.
Attempts by ICANN to meet with ACTO over the last several months have been agreed to and then cancelled by ACTO on at least two separate occasions.
The eight ACTO governments think the string “Amazon” more rightfully belongs to them, due to it being the English name for the rain forest region they share.
Amazon the company has promised to safeguard culturally sensitive terms in .amazon, to assist with future efforts to secure .amazonas or similar for the Amazonian peoples, and to donate services and devices to the nations concerned.
Now, the two parties are going to have to bilaterally decide whether this deal is enough, whether it should be sweetened or rejected outright.
If they can’t come to a deal by ICANN’s deadline (which could be extended if Amazon and ACTO both ask for more time), ICANN will base its decision on whether to approve .amazon based on how Amazon unilaterally proposes to address ACTO’s concerns.
While a rejection of the .amazon application is still on the table, my read is that this is a bigger win for Amazon than it is for ACTO.

Updated: More .amazon delay as governments cancel talks

Kevin Murphy, February 25, 2019, Domain Policy

The future of Amazon’s bid for .amazon has been cast into more doubt after South American governments cancelled talks with ICANN.
The new secretary general of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, Alexandra Moreira, wrote to ICANN CEO Göran Marby February 13 to call off a meeting that had been planned to take place in Brasilia, February 19.
She blamed unspecified “unavoidable circumstances” for the cancellation, but insisted it was unrelated to the .amazon issue.
“It is necessary to clarify that the above mentioned circumstances have no connection whatsoever with neither the substance nor the agenda of the postponed meeting,” she wrote.
I believe the cancellation is related to the ongoing political instability in ACTO member Venezuela, which has recently spilled onto its borders with fellow members Brazil and Colombia.
Moreira reiterated that ACTO remains committed to talks to get the .amazon impasse resolved.
The cancellation of the February 19 meeting causes timing issues for ICANN’s board of directors, which has promised to vote on the .amazon applications at its meetings in Kobe, Japan, at ICANN 64, which kicks off in less than two weeks.
Brazilian Governmental Advisory Committee representative Achilles Zaluar has meanwhile reached out to Marby to request a delay of this decision until ICANN 65, which takes place in June.
Eight-nation ACTO is unhappy with Amazon’s encroachment onto what it sees as its geographic name rights, even though the Amazon region is typically known as Amazonia locally.
Amazon has offered to protect culturally sensitive terms at the second level and to support future efforts to secure a .amazonia TLD.
But its latest offers have still not been formally presented to and discussed with ACTO.
This post was updated an hour after publication to provide additional context to the cancellation.