Goodyear tires of its dot-brand

For the record, I’m not proud of that headline. It doesn’t even work in British English. But if I hadn’t done it, some of you would have complained, and I want you to be happy.

Rubber company Goodyear has become the latest new gTLD registry operator to tell ICANN to terminate a dot-brand.

In this case, it’s not the company’s primary, .goodyear, but rather .dunlop, the brand of one of its tire-making subsidiaries.

The company did not give ICANN a reason for the self-termination; the Dunlop brand appears to be alive and well.

Neither .goodyear nor .dunlop have any registered domains. Dunlop and Goodyear both use .eu and .com domains for their primary web sites.

ICANN’s “review of reviews” kicks off

The ICANN community has kicked off its “review of reviews”, a hopefully brief exercise in navel-gazing designed to free ICANN from even more navel-gazing over the longer term.

The seven supporting organizations and advisory committees have put forth a proposal, which ICANN’s top brass has accepted, for a Review of Reviews Cross Community Group (RoR CCG) that will seek to rescue ICANN from the quagmire of introspection into which it has sunk in recent years.

ICANN’s bylaws, written when the Org got divorced from the US government a decade ago, call for more than half a dozen reviews — of stuff like accountability, competition, security and Whois — most of which are on five-year cycles.

But the institutional lethargy that has consumed ICANN for the last decade, coupled with an already heavy volunteer workload, has meant that the reviews sometimes miss deadlines and still haven’t been fully implemented by the time the next cycle comes around.

The new CCG is being set up to see what can be done to terminate this vicious cycle. A charter document (pdf) sent to ICANN this week reads:

The purpose of the CCG is to manage a fundamental evaluation of the following reviews set out in the ICANN Bylaws, as a whole system, including their implementation, and propose a refreshed system of reviews.

Its timeline is ambitious. The group hopes to have some proposals ready to show the community by ICANN 86, less than a year from now. By ICANN standards that’s pretty much Ludicrous Speed.

The CCG will have a limited membership: two members from each SO and AC, two ICANN staffers and two members of the board for a total of 18. Anyone will be able to passively observe the mailing list and teleconferences.

The draft CCG charter has been accepted by ICANN chair Tripti Sinha. It’s expected that the group will hold public sessions this October in Dublin at ICANN 84.

Huge registrars flee from RDRS

Ten notable domain registrars have abandoned ICANN’s pilot Registration Data Request Service, substantially reducing its usefulness.

In June, 10 accredited registrars pulled their support for the voluntary service, which is designed to give law enforcement, IP owners, and security researchers an easier way to request unredacted Whois records.

Team Internet is out, taking with it its registrars 1API, Internet BS, Key-Systems GmbH, Key-Systems LLC, Moniker, RegistryGate and TLD Registrar Solutions.

Newfold Digital exited with Network Solutions, Register․com, and PublicDomainRegistry․com.

The sum of all this is that there are now 78 participating registrars, compared to 88 at the end of May, and they now only represent 47% of all registered gTLD domains, down from 54%.

That’s the lowest level of participation since RDRS launched in late November 2023 and the first time it’s dropped below half of all registered gTLD domains.

Usage of RDRS has dropped to a whole new low. There were only 68 requests for Whois records in June, down from the previous low of 91 in March.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, the number of searches that resulted in “Registrar Not Supported” errors remained static at 16%, tying for the lowest ratio across the entire pilot to date.

ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee recently said it wants ICANN to consider making RDRS mandatory for all registrars.

Aug 7 Correction: this article originally erroneously stated that Corporation Service Company had removed one registrar and added another. In fact, the registrar in question had simply changed its name. I apologise for the error.

Namecheap loses attempt to bring back .org price caps

ICANN seems to have won a big victory in its ongoing tussle with Namecheap over price caps for .org and .info domains.

A California court ruled late last week that it cannot force ICANN into pricing talks with the registries for the two gTLDs, denying a motion that Namecheap filed back in April.

The dispute dates back to 2019, when ICANN removed price caps from Public Interest Registry’s .org registry contract, which had limited PIR to 10% annual increases.

Namecheap used ICANN’s own Independent Review Process accountability mechanism to challenge this decision and won, kinda, in 2022.

The IRP panel found ICANN had breached its bylaws and issued “recommendations” such as commissioning an economic report into price caps, deciding if price caps should return, and if so then talking to the registries about bringing them back.

When there’d been little action by early 2024, Namecheap sued to get the backing of the court for the IRP decision. It was successful, with the court ruling this February that the IRP findings were valid.

In the meantime, ICANN had obtained its economist’s report and passed a resolution stating that it should not bring price caps back to the two registry contracts.

But Namecheap had a final crack at getting the court to force ICANN into price cap. In a motion this April, it asked the court to instruct ICANN to “approach the registry operators for .ORG and .INFO to agree to some form of price control”.

The court didn’t buy its arguments, however, last week denying Namecheap’s requests on the grounds that ICANN had in fact considered the IRP panel’s recommendations:

Namecheap provides evidence that ICANN in fact did consider the Panel’s recommendations, and thus Plaintiff admits that ICANN did not reject any of the Panel’s findings, so as correctly stated by ICANN, “there is nothing for this Court to enforce.”

In the six years since the price caps were lifted, non-profit PIR has not raised .org prices, while for-profit Identity Digital has raised .info prices every year, from $10.84 in 2019 to $19 today.

Registrar shamed for alleged crypto abuse neglect

ICANN has given a warning to Malaysian registrar WebNic, claiming that it has turned a blind eye to abuse reports in breach of new Registrar Accreditation Agreement rules.

ICANN Compliance says the company, a subsidiary of Kuala Lumpur-based Qinetics, failed to take action to resolve abuse reports made against several domains it manages.

Online reports and databases suggest the names in question were used in phishing attacks attempting to steal cryptocurrency wallet credentials.

Compliance said it “has observed a concerning pattern regarding DNS Abuse mitigation”, saying WebNic continually drags its feet on responding to abuse reports, often only taking action after ICANN gets involved.

The breach notice adds:

The Registrar frequently issued repeated requests for evidence to abuse reporters – even when the original reports appeared actionable – and failed to fully consider information or clarifications provided by the abuse reporter, ICANN or otherwise reasonably accessible to the Registrar. In other cases, the Registrar requested evidence from the abuse reporters that did not appear to be relevant to the reported activity, causing additional delays.

WebNic is not a young, fly-by-night registrar. It’s been around a quarter century and has over 800,000 domains under management just in the gTLDs. Its parent also offers registry back-end services.

The company has until August 19 to make Compliance happy or risk termination proceedings.

Poblete’s ICANN board seat safe

Patricio Poblete seems set to serve a third and final term on ICANN’s board of directors, after nobody else put themselves forward as an alternative.

Poblete, of Chilean ccTLD registry NIC Chile, was nominated to continue in the role as one of the two ccNSO representatives on the board after his current term expires October 2026.

Nobody else stepped up as an alternative, so Poblete now appears to be a shoo-in, assuming he passes due diligence. The ccNSO said “if only one candidate is nominated, no election is required”.

His third term would end in late 2029.

ICANN settles $77 million sexual harassment suit

ICANN has settled another sexual harassment lawsuit filed against it by a former employee.

An ICANN spokesperson said the case, filed last August by 22-year meetings-team veteran Tanzanica King, “has been resolved”. King did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

King had asked for $77 million in damages, approximately half of ICANN’s annual budget, alleging she was the victim of a widespread “frat boy culture” that contributed to her being sexually harassed by her boss, passed over for promotions, and paid less than male colleagues.

The settlement, any financial component of which will no doubt be for a tiny fraction of what was demanded, seems to have come just a few weeks after ICANN lost its attempt to get the case thrown out and referred instead to arbitration.

A Los Angeles judge in June ruled that King was protected by a post-#MeToo law, the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA), even though her employment contract dated back to 2002.

ICANN said last year that the allegations were “untrue” and that it “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.”

It’s at least the third time ICANN has had to settle sexual harassment suits in recent years.

Registrars agree to higher ICANN fees

Domain registrars have agreed to pay more in ICANN fees, after a supermajority vote.

ICANN said today that registrars representing over two thirds of fees voted in favor of the increases, part of a package which Org reckons will add $4.6 million to its annual budget at first.

The package of increases also comes with an increase of the per-transaction fee, typically added by registrars at the checkout and sometimes called the “ICANN tax”, from $0.18 per domain to $0.20.

But the vote related to the variable fees, which will now go up from $3.42 million to $3.8 million per year. That sum is split equally between registrar accreditations, with a deep two-thirds discount for registrars with under 350,000 domains.

The fixed annual $4,000 per-accreditation fee is not changing.

The increases were proposed last October, along with registry fee increases, to plug budget shortfalls caused by macroeconomic factors such as inflation, lumpy registration patterns, and the post-Covid slump in registered names.

These are the first price increases ICANN has implemented in well over a decade.

ICANN to review reviews after review review request fails

An effort by ICANN’s At-Large community to force the Org to stick to its bylaws commitments to periodically review its accountability and transparency has failed after nobody else supported it.

As I reported last month, ALAC petitioned its Empowered Community co-members to get ICANN to overturn its decision to delay Accountability and Transparency Review Team 4, which is already more than a year late.

The other EC members — Government Advisory Committee, the Address Supporting Organization, the Country Code Names Supporting Organization and the Generic Names Supporting Organization — had until July 10 to file their letters of support or objection.

But it received no support and the ccNSO actively objected. The threshold for the petition to go ahead was three votes in favor and no more than one vote against.

The ccNSO pointed out that the current cycle of constantly reviewing itself is broken and getting worse over time. It instead called for a fundamental change in how ICANN reviews itself:

We strongly believe that breaking this vicious cycle can only be achieved if the community pauses and critically assesses the current review system. Specifically, the community should evaluate the breadth and number of reviews by looking at purpose, scope, frequency and associated workload of all ICANN Bylaw mandated reviews (a review of reviews), before embarking again on an Accountability and Transparency Review, or any other Bylaw mandated review.

The GNSO Council had a motion on its table last week that would have expressed non-support for the ALAC’s petition, but a vote was deferred until August, by which point it will be moot anyway.

The ASO and GAC do not appear to have publicly expressed an opinion.

It was the first time any community group has attempted to get the Empowered Community to flex its powers over ICANN. Since Org’s split from the US government nine years ago, the EC has been essentially ICANN’s sovereign body.

The petition being thrown out enables either, depending on your point of view: a) a horrifying, bylaws-defying power grab by Org that threatens transparency and accountability or b) a common-sense step away from an interminable, soul-crushing, resource-sapping cycle of endless navel-gazing.

What it means is that ICANN is going to conduct a meta-review, reviewing how it conducts reviews, and then will fiddle with its bylaws to implement a new renew regime.

ICANN ditches Oman due to Middle-East conflicts

ICANN is relocating its next meeting, scheduled for this October in Muscat, Oman, due to travel difficulties and uncertainties caused by the ongoing conflicts in the region.

The meeting, ICANN’s 2025 Annual General Meeting, will now take place in Dublin, Ireland from October 25 to 30, the same dates as the Oman meeting was meant to take place, Org said.

“Recent developments, including associated flight disruptions and impending timelines related to planning the meeting, made it prudent and necessary to select an alternative and available location,” ICANN said.

While Oman is not involved in any current hostilities, other than as a mediator, Israel’s recent strikes on Iran have caused some busy air corridors in the region to be shut down.

Oman is over 2,000 kilometres distant from Israel, and just across the Gulf of Iran from Iran.

The switch will be frustrating not only for Omanis but also to community members from further afield who have booked their travel early or paid for visas and might have limited refund options. Dublin’s a way more expensive city to visit for travelers on a budget, too.

It also sucks for the organizers of Domain Days Dubai, the upcoming domainer conference. It is scheduled to take place in nearby Dubai immediately before ICANN 84.

ICANN has visited Dublin once before, exactly 10 years before the upcoming ICANN 84.

The Org hinted that Muscat could be selected for a future meeting, when and if things settle down.