Recent Posts
- All the one-character .sk domains to be auctioned
- Straggler gTLD signs first ICANN contract for years
- GoDaddy likely to win relaxed .xxx deal
- Tonkin promoted to CEO at auDA
- ICANN hires new Ombuds from WIPO
- Big twist as ICANN bans new gTLD auctions
- ICANN to “strengthen” harassment rules as it picks another homophobic meeting host
- .my global relaunch starts slowly despite cheapo prices
- Hackers break .mobi after Whois domain expires
- The new gTLD next, next and next round
- Squarespace gets sweetened $7.2 billion takeover offer
- ICANN hit by DDoS attack
- Russia calls for ICANN to split from US
- China loses over half a million domains
- ICANN to be director light for months
- FBI seizes Russian fake news domains
- Chinese registrars back in trouble after porn UDRP suspension
- Sataki quits ICANN board
- Microsoft switches two gTLDs from GoDaddy to Nominet
- ICANN homes in on new gTLD application fee
- Four more dot-brands switch back-ends
- Uzbekistan gets its first ICANN registrar
- Almost 100,000 .tr domains registered in one day
- ICA finally comments on .com pricing talks
- Unstoppable reveals gTLD bid doomed to fail
- RDRS usage stabilizing?
- “Frat boy culture” ICANN faces more sexual harassment claims
- Unstoppable gets ICANN accreditation
- AI and games among July’s interesting dot-brand domains
- ICANN U-turns on appeals loophole after community revolt
- ICANN to terminate five new gTLDs
- US could change .com pricing terms
- Two out, two in as NomCom picks new ICANN directors
- .cv domains now on sale worldwide
- It’s official, .internal is blocked forever
- Amazon to launch two new gTLDs this month
- Revealed: who’s really running Epik
- ICANN swaps out Asia VP
- No .uk price hikes despite tumbling sales
- Domain world growth despite .com slide
- Verisign predicts more gloom as registrars shun .com growth
- Republicans quiz NTIA on Verisign .com renewal
- Smaller, more intense ICANN meetings with no free cocktails?
- Private auctions to be banned in next new gTLD round
- .au prices going up
- Nominet names director hopefuls
- Crowdstrike screw-up took down ICANN’s email
- We grassed up .TOP, says free abuse outfit
- ICANN to earmark $10 million for new gTLD subsidies
- TV network rebrands on single-letter domain
- First registry gets breach notice over new abuse rules
- Americans and ICANNers avoid Kigali in droves
- RDRS stats improve a little in June
- Unstoppable Domains goes down after domain hijack
- Four more gTLDs in emergency measures
- New gTLDs and ccTLDs drive domain universe growth
- Eight interesting recent dot-brand registrations
- .me premium sales down
- Pride fails to reverse gay domains decline
- Unstoppable announces another new gTLD bid
- Blockchain naming firm gets ICANN accreditation
- ICANN takes over gTLD after Whois failures
- Verisign: would-be .com contract killers are “wrong”
- Five gTLDs at risk as registry goes AWOL
- Groups make flawed case that .com is a cartel
- RDRS usage hits all-time low
- A dot-brand so unloved they killed it twice
- PorkBun hits two million domain milestone
- Crawford returns to industry to head up Com Laude
- ICANN financial data dump a damp squib?
- Unstoppable plotting manga-themed gTLDs
- Governments call for new gTLD auctions ban
- ICANN names new CEO, and it isn’t Costerton
- ICANN: We will NOT police content
- More sticker shock as new gTLD fees could top $300,000
- ICANN slashes staff and domain prices could rise
- Secret new gTLD application revealed
- WhatsApp now linkifying new gTLDs, but…
- Outrage over ICANN’s new gTLD fees
- Barrett gets second term on ICANN board
- DotMusic delays gTLD launch again
- .tm prices to skyrocket next week
- Bitcoin gTLD gets launch dates
- First metaverse gTLD is announced
- Alibaba off the naughty step
- ICANN to kill auction fund bylaws change
- The people have spoken on RDRS and they said “Meh”
- ICANN restarts work on controversial Whois privacy rules
- GNSO mulls lawyering up over auction fund dispute
- Jury still out on ICANN’s content policing powers
- It now takes TWO WEEKS to get a Whois record with RDRS
- Travel expenses push ICANN into the red again
- ICANN preparing for ONE HUNDRED registry back-ends
- DNS Abuse Institute changes name
- A new way to game the new gTLD program
- .home, .mail and .corp could get unbanned
- Unstoppable to apply for Women in Tech gTLD
- Bob Parsons publishes autobiography
- GoDaddy getting a free pass from porn jail?
- Correction: Sinha’s seat is safe
- Chinese domains plummet again in 2023
- GoDaddy price increases lead to revenue growth
- D3 announces seventh blockchain gTLD client
- Taylor Swift applies for her .post domain
- .ad domains to go global soon
- Single-letter .com case back in court
- ICANN to slash costs as Verisign’s magic money tree dries up
- Community revolts over ICANN’s auction proceeds power grab
- Two seats up for grabs on Nominet board
- War takes steep toll on .ua domains
- .de worst TLD for CSAM — report
- .com still shrinking because of China
- ICANN publishes its Woke Manifesto. Here’s my hot take
- 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
- A million “free” .music domains up for grabs
- 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
- Cable company unplugs its dot-brand after acquisition
- Germany crosses 10,000 dot-brand domains milestone
- Founders out as Com Laude gets equity injection
Cybersquatting registrar goes into receivership
Lead Networks Domains, an Indian domain name registrar, has been handed to a California receiver after a cybersquatting lawsuit filed by Verizon.
ICANN said today that Bret Fausset has been appointed receiver for the Mumbai-based company, which had about 130,000 domains under management when Verizon sued it.
Verizon sued Lead in January 2008, claiming the registrar’s customers had registered 238 misspellings of Verizon trademarks.
The company further claimed that Lead ignored UDRP rulings that went against it and supplied UDRP avoidance services to its users.
ICANN yanked Lead’s accreditation last July. Fausett said he will now transition any of its remaining domain names to a new registrar.
Internet ‘villain’ to headline ICANN Brussels
It’s a date! Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, has accepted Rod Beckstrom’s invitation to attend ICANN’s meeting in Brussels this June.
Reding is a mildly controversial figure in the domain name world.
Notably, she is the recipient of a UK Internet Service Provider Association Internet Villain award over the launch of .eu, which happened under her watch as Information Society commissioner.
ISPA nominated her in 2007, for “foisting the most arcane set of rules yet seen for prior registration of .eu domains, requiring UK-registered companies to submit legal affidavits to justify the authenticity of their business.”
Arcane rules? At an ICANN meeting? Shurely shome mishtake.
It’s not clear whether Reding will be speaking at the meeting. She’s agreed to attend on June 22, the same day as the Governmental Advisory Committee meeting.
Is Go Daddy’s size a competition concern?
Go Daddy is undoubtedly the runaway success story of the domain name industry.
It may not be as big as VeriSign, but unlike VeriSign it was not simply handed a multi-billion dollar resource to manage. It was essentially scratch-built. It didn’t even have first-mover advantage – Register.com and Network Solutions had that, and Go Daddy’s been eating their lunches for years.
The company has got where it is today through, in my opinion, a combination of cheap prices, decent customer service and populist marketing. Mainly the cheap prices, but I doubt that putting a great big pair of boobs on TV during the Super Bowl can have hurt sales.
But how big is the company? And with the introduction of new gTLDs, is its size now a cause for concern? (continue reading)
Canon to apply for .canon
Japanese printer maker Canon has become the first global brand to throw its hat into the new gTLD ring.
The company said in a press release today that it will apply for .canon as soon as ICANN finalises the process for doing so.
From the release:
Canon has made the official decision to begin necessary procedures to acquire “.canon” upon the introduction of the new system. Following approval for the new gTLD system, which is expected to take place after the latter half of 2011, Canon will make full use of the new domain name to increase the convenience and effectiveness of its online communications.
Medieval battle recreation societies are unlikely to provide much competition for the string.
ICANN: .xxx is not approved
ICANN never makes a decision if it can make a process instead, and that seems to be the case with the board’s latest call on .xxx.
The board voted this morning to kick ICM’s proposal until after the Brussels meeting in June, on the basis that it needs a process by which it can approve .xxx.
While this is mixed news for ICM – it’s not what it hoped for but the company still has a pretty good chance of getting what it wants – the language used in the resolution clearly indicates that the board believes .xxx is currently in an unapproved state: (continue reading)
Beckstrom: DNS is under attack
ICANN chief Rod Beckstrom has come in for a bit of criticism over “inflammatory” comments he made at the Government Advisory Committee meeting on Tuesday.
The headline quote: “The domain name system is more fragile and vulnerable today than it has ever been. It could stop at any given point in time, literally.”
Beckstrom described a DNS on its knees, then pointed the finger at unspecified nations for DNS abuses allegedly happening within their virtual borders, and said he would be writing to GAC members for more information and advice.
It was part call to arms, part Chicken Little.
If you missed it, here’s a full transcript. (continue reading)
Security faux pas in Nairobi
ICANN committed a diplomatic faux pas in its handling of the security scare before its meeting in Nairobi, according to the Kenyan Government Advisory Committee rep.
“We spent most of the months leading up to the meeting occupied and dealing with issues to do with security and I feel this was to do with badly handled communication,” Alice Munyua of the Communications Commission of Kenya said during a meeting on Tuesday.
“I feel that communicating people’s fears (continue reading)
Gossip: Blackouts, Dallas and Kanye
Eight moderately amusing links from the last 24 hours.
- Apparently, ICANN didn’t trust Nairobi’s electrical grid or its hosts’ generators, so took backup power from the US embassy. All was well until a blackout took out the embassy… but not the Kenyatta.
- Squatters prefer “www” typos shocker.
- One-year registrations give you (continue reading)
ICANN chief slams African monopolies
ICANN may have been handed a lemon when it discovered six African nations will be crashing its party in Nairobi, but CEO Rod Beckstrom today sought to make lemonade.
Beckstrom “threw down the gauntlet” and invited IGAD nation leaders to “shatter telecom monopolies” and make high-speed internet access more affordable to the average African. (continue reading)
Oscar winners show desire for .movie
As a bit of a film buff, I’ve always thought the case for a .movie gTLD was a slam-dunk.
I’d really rather see movie posters containing URLs like sherlock.movie rather than sherlock-holmes-movie.warnerbros.com.
I thought I’d figure out how many of last night’s Oscar nominees managed to secure movietitle.tld for their official web sites and how many went for other options. (continue reading)
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