“Bulletproof” registrar gets an ICANN bollocking

ICANN has slapped an intensely privacy-focused registrar that compares its stance on takedowns to Elon Musks with a lengthy breach-of-contract notice, claiming that the company is disregarding legitimate abuse reports for no good reason.

Estonia-based Fewmoretaps, which changed its brand to Trustname.com not long after its accreditation was approved in early 2024, has been friendly to malware distributors that use its services, according to ICANN.

The breach notice claims that Trustname, after it had discovered that an abuse report was valid and that one of its customers’ domains was being used to spread malware, did not suspend the domain as required.

Rather, it gave the registrant a three-day headsup to move their domain to another registrar, according to ICANN.

It additionally ignored multiple abuse reports, often for spurious reasons, the notice claims, often only taking action on abusive domains after ICANN Compliance itself got it touch.

Trustname says it is a “registrar built for businesses in competitive niches that often face false or bad-faith abuse reports” and makes hay out of the fact that it offers “bulletproof” privacy by masking registrants details behind two different proxy services located in different jurisdictions.

While the company’s web site claims ad nauseam that its services are not to be used for illegal purposes such as child abuse material and opioid sales, it boldly states that it “disregards” copyright infringement notices.

“Like Elon Musk, we have a strong aversion to individuals who exploit the DMCA, as we believe it lacks legal authority for the vast majority of the world’s population,” the site states.

IP matters are not covered by ICANN contracts, which defined abuse as malware, pharming, phishing and a subset of spam, of course.

Trustname’s site states that it will only take action against domains in “extreme scenarios”.

Such scenarios include “using your website to host illegal content (that we have confirmed after thorough investigations) and getting court orders from all three jurisdictions.”

The three jurisdictions are the US and Saint Kitts & Nevis, where its proxy partners are located, and its home nation of Estonia. Saint Kitts-based Harakiri (Perfect Privacy LLC) was specifically chosen because court orders are hard to come by there.

The company additionally states, in what could be interpreted as an admission of guilt by ICANN Compliance standards:

We will never take any action against a domain name simply because someone filed a complaint – even if your report indicates a violation of our terms. We will only be obligated to take action when we get the relevant court orders.

Trustname, which had fewer than 1,500 gTLD domains under management at the last count, has been given until July 1 to come back into compliance or risk losing its accreditation.

Comment Tagged: abuse, breach, compliance, ICANN, trustname

Team Internet says domains business sale imminent

Team Internet expects to be able to announce the sale of its domains business in the next several weeks, coming at the end of a turbulent 2025 that saw revenue, and its share price, tumble.

The company — home to registry and registrar brands including CentralNic, BrandShelter, Moniker and domaindiscount24 — said of its Domains, Identity & Software (DIS) segment in a recent trading statement:

Discussions continue with selected parties regarding a potential disposal of the DIS segment, which the Board will pursue where it delivers fair value. While there can be no certainty that any transaction will be agreed, or as to its terms, the Board expects the outcome of the strategic review, including any agreement relating to a potential disposal of DIS, to be announced in the first half of Q3. Subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals, the Board expects any resulting transaction to complete during 2026.

That suggests a deal could be announced anywhere from this week to mid-August.

Team Internet got badly burned by Google after the advertising giant changed the way it allows parking companies to monetize domains in early 2025. Its revenue per thousand page views was cut in half, down by 51% to $34 million last year.

The company is now talking about a legal case against Google (which it did not name directly), saying it is “pursuing a substantial damages claim against a major technology company, arising from anti-competitive conduct”.

In its audited 2025 results, announced Friday, the company said its DIS segment was down 4% to $194.6 million, with adjusted EBITDA up 10% at $21.4 million as it pursued a strategy of squeezing more profit out of each customer rather than pushing volume.

The Search segments, most affected by Google’s antics, saw its top line down 59% at $222 million, with EBITDA down 84% at $9 million. Overall, Team Internet saw revenue down 40% at $481.9 million, with EBITDA down 54% at $42.7 million.

The company also disclosed that it has had trouble meeting its financial commitments to its lenders, but that it has come to arrangement to have the banks forgive the transgressions.

It plans to either refinance or use the proceeds from the DIS disposal to service its debts.

Comment Tagged: acquisition, earnings, financials, google, results, team internet

Two-letter domain auction raises half a billion (dong)

Vietnam’s domain registry reportedly raised VND 557 million selling 31 two-character .vn domains at auction late last month.

That works out to about an average of about $685 per successfully sold domain, not a lot for a two-character name even in a relatively unknown (in the west) ccTLD.

The auction was led by ok.vn, which went for the dong equivalent of $4,170. Other sales included hi.vn ($2,281), mb.vn ($1,445), f5.vn for ($1,365), 3m.vn ($836) and 5s.vn ($684), according to Viet Nam News.

It was the second batch of names to be auctioned by VNNIC, following a round in March that was led by the sale of mb.vn for over $60,000.

Comment Tagged: .vn, auction, two-character, vnnic

Another country jumps on the .ai bandwagon

Another Asian registry has added a .ai option at the third level of its ccTLD, seeking to capitalize on the growth of the artificial intelligence industry.

PANDI, the registry for Indonesia’s .id domains, said that it is launching .ai.id domain names this month.

The launch is coming in phases, with a trademarks-only sunrise period currently underway and running until July 2.

A month-long grandfathering period will follow from July 13, with registrants of existing .id names able to pick up their exact-match .ai.id equivalents.

From August 24 there’ll be a landrush period, with premium pricing, which runs for one month. General availability is slated for October 5.

PANDI already offers a multitude of third-level options under .id, of which .co.id is the most popular. Other options include .go.id, .my.id, .web.id, as well as vanilla second-level names.

It’s the second registry to offer .ai at the third level since the AI boom began, following Korea’s KISA, which started selling .ai.kr names, among others, last year.

Comment Tagged: .ai.id, .id, ai, pandi

ICANN lays out new rules for navel-gazing

ICANN is set to cut back on the amount of navel-gazing it carries out, dramatically scaling back how often it reviews its own structure and performance.

The community’s unashamedly meta “Review of Reviews” has produced fruit on schedule, with a set of principles set to be opened for discussion at the ICANN 86 meeting in Seville, Spain which kicks off this weekend.

The Cross Community Group that came up with the new framework would see some reviews that are currently mandated by ICANN’s bylaws eliminated altogether and others put on a substantially longer cycle.

The CCG is recommending that only two reviews are mandatory, the Accountability & Transparency Review, which would occur every five years, and an ICANN Structural Review which would run every 15 years instead of the current five.

The Registration Directory Service Review, which according to the bylaws has to review Whois policy every five years, does not appear to feature in the new recommendations. Either does the Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice Review.

The five-yearly Security, Stability, and Resiliency Review would now be treated as an “On-Demand Review”, a new category of review that can be called for by the community if a very high voting threshold is met.

The proposals already have their detractors among the community’s constituency groups.

The Non-Commercial Stakeholders Group has concerns that they would favor highly resourced interest groups at the expense of marginalized communities, for example, while the Intellectual Property Constituency believes eliminating some of the reviews poses a risk of DNS abuse and IP infringement.

There will be a session on the proposals in Seville on Monday.

Comment Tagged: ICANN, review of reviews

Surprising nobody, ICANN calls off Oman meeting

The bad news: ICANN has cancelled its meeting in Oman this October. The good news: you’re all going to Bali instead!

The ICANN 87 Annual General Meeting will now take place at the conference center attached to The Westin Resort Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, from October 17 to 22. Those are the same dates as the scheduled meeting in Muscat.

While ICANN scrupulously avoided explicitly laying the blame at the feet of Donald Trump, from whom the Org has been cowering since his second term as US president began, the relocation of the AGM is not unexpected and certainly due to the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran.

While the timing may be coincidental, ICANN’s announcement came less than a week after an increasingly unpredictable Trump threatened to bomb Oman, which has been acting largely as a neutral mediator to date.

But ICANN merely said:

The decision to relocate the meeting was made in consultation with the meeting hosts and local partners in Oman, with a shared focus on ensuring that the AGM can proceed on schedule and support broad global participation.

…

Accessibility, travel reliability, and the ability to participate, both in person and online, are essential to its success. In light of recent developments affecting regional airspace, ICANN has taken this step now to provide certainty for participants and ensure the meeting can move forward as planned.

Bali is of course a popular tourist destination in the Asia-Pacific region — and the beachfront Westin looks gorgeous — it is a long slog for ICANN participants from North American and Europe. But the risk of accidentally getting shot down is much reduced.

It’s the second time in less than a year ICANN has postponed a meeting in Oman due to regional instability.

Comment Tagged: bali, ICANN, icann 87, indonesia, muscat, oman, war

Four registrars get terminated

Four companies have had their gTLD accreditations terminated, as ICANN continues to clear up its backlog of long-dormant deadbeat registrars.

The unrelated entities are US-based Domus, Finland-based Globis, Hong Kong-based Overcasts, and Wanyuhulian Technology from China. They’ve all lost their ICANN contracts as of May 29.

No domains are at risk, as none of the registrars had any gTLD names under management. Two of them never sold a single domain.

All of the companies in question were in breach for failing to pay their accreditation fees. One of them inexplicably had its accreditation renewed last year despite already being past due.

Comment Tagged: compliance, ICANN, termination

ICANN director and African internet pioneer Barrett dies

Alan Barrett, a member of ICANN’s board of directors and an internet pioneer in his home of South Africa has died, according to ICANN.

The Org said that Barrett died of recently-diagnosed cancer yesterday, May 28. An online memorial is being planned, but his family have requested privacy in the meantime, ICANN said.

Barrett was involved in setting up the first internet connections to universities in South Africa and the launch of the first commercial ISP there in the 1990s, according to his biography.

He also served as CEO of AFRINIC, the Regional Internet Registry for Africa, from 2015 to 2019.

“Alan was a kind man, who listened to others,” ICANN CEO Kurt Lindqvist wrote on social media. “When Alan spoke you listened as he was always well read, balanced and would suggest a path forward on thorny issues.”

He was the Address Supporting Organization’s two-time appointment to the ICANN board and his second term was due to expire at the conclusion of the 2027 Annual General Meeting.

1 Comment Tagged: ICANN

Government to put the squeeze on .me registry partners

In what looks like bad news for GoDaddy and Identity Digital, Montenegro appears to be the latest government to demand a bigger share of revenues from its national ccTLD.

While already formally delegated to the government, .me is currently managed by doMEn, a partnership between the two American companies and local firm ME-net, but Montenegro is planning to grab much greater state control over the ccTLD.

And it seems to want more money too, according to an official document published this week.

Machine-translated, the document states:

The “.me” domain management model provides stable revenues for the state, but at the same time generates significantly higher overall economic benefits for the private agent and its (predominantly foreign) owners, with a relatively limited state participation in the total profit (about 35–36% of total revenues and about a quarter of the profit through the domestic partner [ME-net]).

The document states that .me generated €114 million ($132.7 million) between its 2008 launch and 2025, but that the government only received €41 million ($47.7 million), about 35-36% of the total.

The government reckons its share should be at least 50%.

The document says that doMEn has made €47 million in net profit over the same period, an amount in excess of what the state, which gets 33% of regular reg revenue and 70% of premium sales, received.

doMEn’s revenue in 2025 was almost €10.1 million ($11.75 million), having grown consistently every year since 2008, according to the document.

The document floats three options for a future registry model, ranging from full state ownership to a joint ownership with its back-end providers. All three options would give the government ultimate control over the TLD.

The government also explores three options for how the registry should be managed in future, from bringing it fully in-house to the current model of outsourcing all technical functions to a third party.

It concludes that the current model is probably the least risky right now, but notes that it could be used as a stepping-stone to a “hybrid” model where a state-owned registry handles key functions such as the registry of domains while key functions such as DNS are outsourced to specialists.

So in the short-term it appears that Montenegro is sufficiently risk-averse that doMEn’s owners may not lose the .me deal any time soon — a 2023 RFP for a new operator has been cancelled, the government said.

But it does appear they’re looking at a different regulatory regime in future, one in which more than half of their revenues go to the state, rather than into their own coffers.

Comment Tagged: .me, domen, godaddy, identity digital, me-net, montenegro

More cheap new gTLD applications approved

ICANN has approved 18 more requests for reduced-fee new gTLD applications under its Applicant Support Program.

As of last week, the Org said it has conditionally approved a total of 16 requests, up by 13 on a month earlier, and fully approved 27, up by five. “Fully approved” means ICANN has received payment from the applicant.

Only one request has so far been rejected, because the applying entity was found not to be eligible for the program.

There are now a total of 44 applications that have been processed, with 32 more in the pipeline.

The ASP offers up to an 80% discount on the $227,000 base new gTLD application fee, along with a range of other perks, to non-profit organizations on tight budgets.

3 Comments Tagged: asp, ICANN, new gTLDs