Unstoppable reveals gTLD bid doomed to fail

It’s finally happened. Somebody has announced an application for a new gTLD that will almost certainly fall foul of ICANN’s rules and be rejected.

The would-be applicant is Farmsent, a United Arab Emirates startup that is building a blockchain-based marketplace for farmers and buyers of farm produce, and its domains partner is Unstoppable Domains.

Unstoppable said last week that the two companies are launching .farms domains on Unstoppable’s alternative naming system, and that an ICANN application for a proper gTLD is in the works.

The company said it “will be collaborating with Farmsent to plan and strategize for the next ICANN gTLD application, further solidifying .farms in the wider domain ecosystem”.

The problem is that .farms will likely be banned under the rules set out in ICANN’s Applicant Guidebook for the next round, unless the current draft recommendations are completely rewritten or rejected.

ICANN is to be told to reject applications for the plural and singular variants of existing gTLDs in the next round, and .farms is of course the plural of .farm, which is one of the few hundred names in Identity Digital’s stable.

The draft recommendations would merely require for ICANN to be informed that an applied-for string is a single or plural variant of an existing gTLD in the same language and check in a dictionary to confirm that is indeed the case.

In the case of .farm and .farms, I doubt the dictionary verification would realistically even be needed — though I’d bet checking that box would be at least one billable hour for somebody — as it’s a pretty clear-cut case of a bannable clash.

The ICANN staff/community working group drafting the recommendations has spent a huge amount of time arguing about the language of the plurals rule. It’s a surprisingly tricky problem, especially when ICANN is terrified of being seen as a content regulator.

7 Comments Tagged: .farm, .farms, farmsent, ICANN, identity digital, new gTLDs, next round, subpro, unstoppable

RDRS usage stabilizing?

Usage of ICANN’s experimental Registration Data Request Service may have hit what might in future pass for normal levels, with not a massive amount of fluctuation across several key statistics for the last few months.

But ICANN’s latest monthly stats report, published late last week, shows that July was the worst month so far in terms of closed Whois data disclosure requests, dipping into double digits for the first time since its launch in late 2023.

There were 164 disclosure request in July, down from 169 in June but up on May’s low point of 154. The mix of requester types tilted towards IP owners — 40% versus a lifetime average of 33% — while law enforcement was down.

Only 97 requests were closed during the period, a third consecutive all-time low down from 134 in June and 140 in May. Approved requests were at 22.72% while denied requests were at 65.79%, a slight improvement in terms of the approved/denied mix compared to June.

It took a bit longer to get a request approved in July — 9.3 days on average versus 6.59 in June and a lifetime average of 7.19 days. The median time-to-approval since launch is still two days.

Getting a request denied took about half as long in the period — 10.7 days versus 19.46 in June. The median value is also still two days.

Two new, smaller registrars — one Chinese, one Moroccan — joined the project, and none quit, leading to a total of 92. Registrar coverage remained at 59% of registered gTLD domains.

The number of RDRS queries for domains held at unsupported registrars was down at 27.86% compared to a lifetime average of 29.7% but up against June’s 23.31%.

Comment Tagged: ICANN, privacy, rdrs, whois

“Frat boy culture” ICANN faces more sexual harassment claims

One of ICANN’s longest-serving employees has sued the Org and her old boss, claiming she suffered from years of sexual harassment and discrimination and was then laid off after she complained about her treatment.

The harassment claims relate to two male former ICANN employees and cover alleged behavior from off-color sexual jokes to groping, what the complaint calls “severe and outrageous sexual harassment and sexual assaults”.

But the suit also describes a broader “frat boy culture” at the Org that allegedly under-pays women and overlooks them for promotion while turning a blind eye to complaints about inappropriate behavior by male colleagues.

The suit seeks $77 million in damages and lists 14 causes of action under harassment and employment law, as well as a defamation claim against an outside lawyer ICANN hired to investigate the original complaints.

“Many of the allegations in the complaint are untrue and we will defend our organization and our policies vigorously,” ICANN said in a statement issued after the lawsuit was first reported by local Los Angeles press.

The complainant is Tanzanica King, former meeting strategy and design director, who worked at ICANN for 22 years — the second longest-serving employee — before being laid off a few months ago. She’s given her consent to be named in this article.

Her complaint says:

In exchange for her dedication, [King] has been subjected to the frat boy culture, having been repeatedly passed over for promotions, paid lower salaries than male colleagues, sexually harassed, and then wrongfully terminated for blowing the whistle. For all its poetic waxing of gender equality, ICANN is a rotted apple veiled by a thin shiny veneer.

On the harassment claims, King’s suit covers alleged incidents from 2006 to 2023, mainly involving her direct supervisor on the meetings team, who left ICANN earlier this year. The complaint says he was fired due to the harassment.

The complaint says King’s boss “sexually harassed and sexually assaulted Plaintiff on the basis of her gender, including, without limitation, making unwanted sexual advances and engaging in unwanted verbal and physical conduct of a sexual nature”.

The complaint says that ICANN’s top lawyers and HR department “turned a blind eye” to complaints from herself and other colleagues about this alleged behavior over the years.

It adds that interim CEO Sally Costerton this year “disregarded Ms. King’s privacy” and shared details of her complaints with the “entire executive team” after the alleged harasser was fired.

King herself took unpaid medical leave last December — she says due to the toll her experience at ICANN took on her — and lost her job during ICANN’s round of layoffs this May.

A female external lawyer hired by a female ICANN lawyer in May last year to investigate King’s complaints is accused of instead trying to victim-blame and cover up the allegations in order to “hide the facts from the Board of Directors”.

A large portion of the complaint seeks to paint the Org as a “good old boys” club, in which male employees with less time served were either promoted earlier or paid more than King.

The complaint also talks about alleged sexism in the broader ICANN community, referring to a 2018 survey of community members that found that some male ICANN meeting attendees have behaved inappropriately around female peers.

ICANN has spent years trying to portray itself as a female-friendly organization in the traditionally male-heavy tech sector, not too many years ago introducing an anti-harassment policy to sit alongside its long-standing Expected Standards of Behavior.

It has recently trumpeted the fact that its CEO and chair are both currently female, and chair Tripti Sinha has talked about her desire for “gender parity” on the board of directors, something that has yet to be achieved.

Here’s ICANN’s statement in response to the lawsuit in full:

ICANN has been sued by a longtime former colleague. The ICANN Board conducted a thorough independent investigation into the matters the plaintiff previously reported to ICANN. Many of the allegations in the complaint are untrue and we will defend our organization and our policies vigorously. Our arguments will be made in the proper venue.

ICANN strives to create a positive, safe, and inclusive work and community environment, and is committed to the highest possible standards of ethical, moral, and legal business conduct. ICANN enforces this through a zero-tolerance policy toward harassment, discrimination and retaliation.

This is at least the third time ICANN has been subject to legal proceedings related to alleged sexual harassment of female employees by more-senior male employees in the last five years.

Here’s King’s complaint (pdf) in full.

Comment Tagged: ICANN, sexual harassment

Unstoppable gets ICANN accreditation

Unstoppable Domains has become the second blockchain alt-root naming service to get its ICANN accreditation.

The company said today it intends to carry the “the vast majority of generic top-level domains”. It had already been selling .com names, alongside its suite of blockchain extensions, as a reseller.

It also said it intends to sell ccTLD domains, although ICANN accreditation is of course not required for most of those.

It’s the second purveyor of blockchain names to move into the domain name industry after Freename, which got its accreditation last month.

Unstoppable is also working with several blockchain technology companies to prepare applications for new gTLDs when ICANN opens its next application window in 2026.

Comment Tagged: accreditation, ICANN, unstoppable

AI and games among July’s interesting dot-brand domains

A domain hosting a fun little video game for Lidl staff was the highlight dot-brand domain registration in July.

There were 210 registrations in dot-brands in July 2024, spread across 34 individual TLDs. As usual, the largest registrant was German financial services firm Deutsche Vermögensberatung, which gives .dvag domains to its agents, with 90 new regs.

Just like in the non-brand space, not all dot-brand regs immediately resolve publicly. Some never will. Others, technical indicators show, are only designed for private corporate purposes.

These are the new domains that caught my eye in July.

levelup.lidl (also level-up.lidl) — These domains leads to a surprisingly polished, cutesy-cutesy browser game where the player, presumably a new hire at the German supermarket giant, controls a cartoon potato (?) character as they wander around a 3D landscape interacting with other characters to learn about Lidl’s corporate values. Okay, I admit I only gave it five minutes, but it surely beats a PowerPoint.

gemini.google — Gemini is Google’s AI chatbot. The brand has been around since last December, but it took until July for the matching .google domain to be registered. It currently resolves to gemini.google.com, the official Gemini site. Google also registered another of its brands, fitbit.google, in the month, but it does not currently publicly resolve.

sustainability.bostik (and 27 others) — Adhesives maker Bostik registered 28 .bostik domains in July, all related to product categories (paper.bostik, tape.bostik), customer verticals (transportation.bostik, construction.bostik) or corporate purposes (history.bostik, careers.bostik). The company only has 36 active .bostik domains, registering none for over a year, so the new regs suggest a possible rethink of the dot-brand, even though the domains don’t yet publicly resolve.

escapegames.bnpparibas — Why would BNP Paribas, a large French bank, be interested in “escape games”? Is it planning on locking people in its massive safes? The domain doesn’t currently resolve, so I couldn’t tell you.

sellersinyourcommunity.amazon (and variants) — Amazon also registered the likes of sellersofthecommunity.amazon and sellersinthecommunity.amazon, but the registration of siyc.amazon suggests “Sellers In Your Community” is to be the correct brand for whatever localized e-commerce initiative the online retailer has in mind.

Comment Tagged: dot-brands, new gTLDs

ICANN U-turns on appeals loophole after community revolt

ICANN has backtracked and substantially pared down a proposal that could have weakened its accountability mechanisms after most of the community said they didn’t like it.

The Org has published for public comment a proposed amendment to its bylaws that will exclude its new Grant Program from the Request for Reconsideration and Independent Review Process mechanisms.

The amendment would specifically exclude claims “relating to decisions to approve or not approve an application to the ICANN Grant Program” from both procedures.

An earlier proposal would have created a new procedure to enable ICANN to also exclude other programs from accountability in future, if certain conditions were met.

But the community largely reacted with revulsion to that proposal, saying they could not support something so overly broad, forcing ICANN to narrow it down to the Grant Program only. ICANN needs the support of its sovereign Empowered Community if it wants to amend its fundamental bylaws.

The $220 million Grant Program is seeking to distribute ICANN’s new gTLD auction funds to worthy causes, but there was a fear the cash could be siphoned off by lawyers if unsuccessful grant applicants were allowed to trigger the accountability mechanisms.

The revised language is likely to be much more palatable to the community, based on previous comments.

The public comment period is open until September 16.

Comment Tagged: accountability, grant program, ICANN, irp, rfr

ICANN to terminate five new gTLDs

ICANN is set to terminate the registry contracts for five new gTLDs run by an apparent deadbeat registry.

Asia Green IT System’s agreements for .pars, .shia, .tci, .nowruz and .همراه (.xn--mgbt3dhd) have all been “Escalated to Termination Process” following a July breach notice, according to ICANN’s web site.

The first stage of the termination is mediation, which can be followed by arbitration before the contracts, which were all due to expire next month anyway, finally get torn up.

The escalation was not unexpected. All five gTLDs were migrated to the Emergency Back-End Registry Operator program last month after critical systems failed to function within the contractual requirements.

It is believed that the TLDs stopped functioning properly after AGIT failed to pay its back-end provider. It also allegedly failed to pay its ICANN fees.

The gTLDs in question for the most part were not used. The Iranian new-year-themed .nowruz had a handful of third-party registrations but the others never launched in the decade AGIT was contracted to run them.

.tci is an interesting case, a planned dot-brand that AGIT had intended to operate on behalf of the Telecommunication Company of Iran, the country’s incumbent telco.

Comment Tagged: agit, asia green it system, breach, compliance, ICANN, termination

US could change .com pricing terms

The US government and Verisign are to enter talks about possible changes to .com pricing.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has told the company that it “intends to renew its Agreement with Verisign” but said it welcomed Verisign agreeing to talks that “may include an amendment to the pricing terms”.

The news came in an exchange of letters between NTIA assistant secretary Alan Davidson and Verisign chief Jim Bidzos over the weekend, published last night. Davidson wrote:

NTIA has questions related to pricing in the .com market. We are therefore pleased that Verisign has agreed to discussions regarding .com pricing and the health of the .com ecosystem, including retail and secondary markets. The parties will discuss possible solutions that benefit end-users, both businesses and consumers, and serve the public interest

The Cooperative Agreement between NTIA and Verisign gives the company the right to raise prices by 7% in four of the six years of its term, all of which Verisign exercised in the current run, which ends in a couple months.

The price-rising powers were frozen under Obama administration but reinstated under Trump, giving Verisign masses of extra revenue and huge profit margins, even as .com volume numbers took a prolonged dive.

NTIA’s intervention follows letters from three campaign groups calling .com a “cartel” and inquiries from three Congresspeople.

In response to NTIA’s letter, Bidzos wrote:

We have observed that our capped .com price increases have not always been passed through to benefit end-users and therefore we welcome an opportunity to have this important discussion. We are prepared to consider structures to address this and other issues, including ways to make .com pricing more predictable for the channel as part of it.

It’s clear from this rather tense exchange that the two parties might not exactly see eye-to-eye on their desired outcomes.

Verisign’s position recently has been that .com volumes have been falling in large part because of what Bidzos called the “unregulated retail channel” pumping up prices to increase profit-per-domain over domains under management.

He also pointed out in the company’s most-recent quarterly earnings call that the average price of .coms on the secondary market is $1,600, or 166x the wholesale price.

As some have pointed out, Verisign complaining about profiteering in the channel is the height of chutzpah, given its own mouth-watering margins, which appear to be what it seeks to protect more than anything else.

If Verisign reckons the registrar business is so great, why hasn’t it launched a registrar of its own yet? The company has been legally permitted by the Cooperative Agreement and its ICANN contract to do so for years.

Comment Tagged: .com, ICANN, ntia, pricing, verisign

Two out, two in as NomCom picks new ICANN directors

Two ICANN directors will lose their seats on the board and be replaced by newcomers at the Org’s annual general meeting later this year.

Vice chair Danko Jevtović and Edmon Chung, who have served two and one of the maximum three three-year terms respectively, will depart, according to the announcement of this year’s Nominating Committee picks.

They will be replaced by Amitabh Singhal, from the Asia-Pacific region, who I believe is an Indian internet policy expert who founded .in registry NIXI and also sits on the board of .org manager Public Interest Registry.

Also named, Miriam Sapiro, who I can only assume is Ambassador Miriam Sapiro, a US Trade Representative under the Obama administration who also held a senior policy role at Verisign for a couple of years two decades ago before leaving on acrimonious terms.

Chair Tripti Sinha of North America has also been reappointed for a final term.

The noobs, who both seem incredibly well-qualified for their new roles, will take their seats for the first time at the end of ICANN 81 in Istanbul in October.

1 Comment Tagged: ICANN, nomcom

.cv domains now on sale worldwide

Cabo Verde has become the latest nation to market its ccTLD globally based on its meaning in other languages.

The country’s .cv domain is now available via several registrars and recently formed registry entity OlaCV.

A CV is of course shorthand for “curriculum vitae”, what Americans call a résumé, in many countries. OlaCV reckons its addressable market is 3.5 billion people, according to its web site.

OlaCV appears to be a Delaware corporation formed in May last year, shortly before it was awarded the five-year registry contract by Cabo Verde regulator ARME.

You’d be hard-pressed to find any company information on its web site, but OlaCV appears to have its roots in Nigeria, with the ICANN-accredited registrar Go54 (formerly WhoGoHost).

WhoGoHost founder Ope Awoyemi, who has been doing domainer conferences recently, is named as president of the company in a press release today. IANA has the technical contact for .cv as Portuguese ccTLD operator DNS.pt.

Some of the international registrars named on the registry web site do not currently seem to support .cv on their storefronts, and prices vary substantially among those that do carry it.

While OlaCV say prices should be around $10 a year, the only registrar I could find selling in that range was NameSilo. Prices around $70 to $120 seem a lot more common right now.

The registry’s premium pricing strategy is a little different to the usual — domains of six characters and under have premium pricing, regardless of their semantic value.

Cabo Verde is an island nation in West Africa with a population of about half a million. A former colony of Portugal, Portuguese is the main official state language.

Comment Tagged: .cv, olacv