Recent Posts
- Alibaba, Name.com among new RDRS opt-ins
- .my domains to be sold globally next month
- The Swiss can register .swiss domains from next week
- .ai up to 425,000 domains
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- D3 to get $5 million in crypto to apply for .ape gTLD
- Alibaba hit with ICANN breach notice
- New Vegas conference “Davos for Web3 interoperability”
- ICANN content policing power grab may be dead
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- Germany crosses 10,000 dot-brand domains milestone
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- Internet could get one-letter gTLDs (but there’s a catch)
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- Epik gets acquired again! The plot thickens…
- Airline gTLD crashes and burns
- First chunks of new gTLD Applicant Guidebook drop
- Epik to reveal its owners soon
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- ICANN picks its first ever Supreme Court
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- First bits of new gTLD Applicant Guidebook expected next week
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- Internet Naming Co acquires five more gTLDs
Chehade promises to cure herpes
ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade has promised to find a cure for herpes by the end of the year.
Delivering an impromptu keynote speech at the National STD Prevention Conference in Atlanta today, Chehade also apologized for the continuing existence of the pernicious viral infection, which he blamed on predecessor Rod Beckstrom.
“I came here to listen,” he told an audience of confused gynecologists. “And I’ve heard what you have said. Herpes simplex is a problem, I know this now. I’m on your side.”
“I therefore commit ICANN to curing herpes by the end of the year.”
“But we can’t do this alone,” he continued. “I therefore call on all stakeholders to work together on this important initiative.”
He added that the ICANN board of directors reserves the right to create its own cure and implement a mandatory vaccination program, should the community fail to come to agreement.
Chehade’s speech came at the tail end of a tiring outreach tour that has seen him address community members from all corners of the globe.
But reaction from the assembled physicians, epidemiologists and obstetricians was enthusiastic.
“He said everything I wanted to hear,” one beaming attendee told DI after Chehade’s 20-minute standing ovation died down. “Who knew Eugene Levy knew so much about herpesviridae?”
“I’ve no idea who that guy is,” said another delegate. “He just kinda wandered on stage and started talking. But I like him a lot.”
Herpes is an aggressive sexually transmitted viral infection, symptomized primarily by unsightly, weeping sores on the lips and genitals.
Some ICANN community members have already questioned whether finding a cure is within ICANN’s narrow technical mandate.
“This is mission-creep, pure and simple,” academic or something Milton Mueller blogged. “The cure for herpes, along with All Other Things, should be subject to free market forces.”
Mueller pointed to Chehade’s surprise appearance last week at the National Congress of Theoretical Physicists, during which he committed ICANN to preventing the heat death of the universe, as further evidence that ICANN is acting outside its remit.
Members of the domain name industry also expressed outrage.
Donuts, which has applied for .herpes, claimed Chehade’s speech threatened to interfere with its business model.
“If ICANN cures herpes, who’s going to defen… who’s going to register a .herpes domain name?” CEO Paul Stahura said.
The trademark community cautiously welcomed Chehade’s plans, but said they did not go far enough to protect rights holders.
“For too long, herpes has caused irritation for many in the IP community,” said Intellectual Property Constituency chair Kristina Rosette. “Not to mention widespread squatting problems.”
But ICANN should take care to protect the rights of HerpesTM, a popular brand of canned soup in Latin America, she added.
Meanwhile, DotConnectAfrica pointed to a throwaway line in Chehade’s speech as unambiguous proof of an illegal conspiracy against its .africa bid involving ICANN, DI, the Freemasons, the Illuminati, the Rosicrucians, the Bilderberg Group and the Ku Klux Klan.
*slow clap*
.fool
I think this is a perfect summary of the current state of affairs…
During a second, I thought you wrote: “CANN CEO Fadi Chehade has promised to find a cure for the protection of wine Geographical Indications by the end of the meeting in Beijing.”
since when icann now started inventing medications?????? pharmaceutical business ????
what happen to domain business plan??
jokeincite.com: because all the good jokes were taken.
April Fools?
I’m a licensed herpetologist, and I can prove he’s only selling snake oil.
Who the hell cares about your damn market ??? Its ruining peoples lives… have u noticed that majority who get this are of 19-25 age group ?? one in every 6 is infected .. soon it ll spread to 3 in evry 6 …
Market , antivirals for hepes being a 6 bn industry , money …yada yada yada….
just leave all that and think .. are u waiting for it to mutate itself and turn into something like HIV or something else deadly … Please find a cure before its too late ….anyone..
By the end of the year? At least make your lies sound realistic. I just got it this month and it has affected me and my love life in a way I could never have fathomed. I pray for a cure but feel god has turned his back on me, if there is a god. I think about it every night before bed and every morning when I wake. I’d give anything for a cure but don’t go around telling us you can solve what decades of medical research and hundreds of doctors could not…
ShockCollins I too just got this mfing virus this month . Actually aone week ago. But if this is the real deal then, awesome. But mostof everyones claims to have a cure is just total bullshit. This virus is messing my life up beyond explanation as everyone that has it knows. I am a single father of two and the stress of raising them and having this shit is hard. So if some S.O.B. says he will have a cure by the end of 2013 is BS. Probably going to develop another hpv suppressant so they can make a fortune off of our misfortune.
It was an April fool’s joke.