Entries tagged with “registry” from Domains / Internet Technology News - DNS News

The ICANN Board's statement on vertical integration at Nairobi has left pretty much everyone in an awkward position.

Either it is:

• a masterful move by the board
• or an act of madness

I'd hope it was the masterful move, as it essentially forces everyone to reach a consensus. Failure to do so will have a negative impact on both registrars and registries, as nobody can really "win' in the post-Nairobi world.

The Board's statement is still being debated, but on the face of it they are blocking any form of relationship between registries and registrars:

5. New gTLDs Implementation – Vertical Integration

Whereas, decisions about industry structure affect many aspects of the public interest – prices, service offerings, sources and uses of data, and more;

Whereas, ICANN has obtained several studies, and heard from Industry participants about the possible benefits and detriments of choices related to ownership integration or non-integration;\

Whereas, the market for new gTLDs will be dynamic, and has yet to emerge. In particular, there are concerns about how industry structure could affect consumer data protection;

Whereas, the GNSO is in an active policy development process on the issue of Vertical Integration, and the Board does not want to create an environment in which it would be difficult to later harmonize the new gTLD marketplace with the GNSO policy result; and

Whereas, it is important to establish a baseline approach to registry-registrar separation for the new gTLD process to move ahead.

Resolved (2010.03.12.17), within the context of the new gTLD process, there will be strict separation of entities offering registry services and those acting as registrars. No co-ownership will be allowed.

Resolved (2010.03.12.18), if a policy becomes available from the GNSO, and approved by the Board prior to the launch of the new gTLD program, that policy will be considered by the Board for adoption as part of the New gTLD Program.

The second last line includes an incredibly vague reference to "registry services" without offering any definition. So is providing DNS to a registry covered? What about if I buy shares in a company that already owns shares in another company? Where do you draw the line?

The last sentence is the "opening", but based on the interactions on the mailing list so far I'd suspect that there will be a lot of squabbling ..

Hopefully, however, there will be some progress, as it is now an issue of importance to a lot of parties

The board has put forward a motion to decide vertical integration once and for all. There will no cross-ownership allowed.

The board's decision is very interesting.

They are, to quote Dennis Jennings, setting a baseline, but will bow to any policy decision that comes from the GNSO.

There is now a GNSO PDP (Policy Development Process) to discuss vertical integration.

The board has put forward a motion to decide vertical integration once and for all. There will no cross-ownership allowed.

The board's decision is very interesting.

They are, to quote Dennis Jennings, setting a baseline, but will bow to any policy decision that comes from the GNSO.

There is now a GNSO PDP (Policy Development Process) to discuss vertical integration.

Nominet, the registry operator that manages *.uk, is planning on releasing both single and two character domain names.

In common with a lot of other ccTLD registry operators, Nominet had blocked single and two character domain names from being registered. However they are now planning on releasing them to the public in a phased plan.

The exact details of "how" the domains will become available have not been decided, which is why the registry is now conducting a consultation period with the public.

The current proposal is not drastically different to the kind of methodology used by several of the gTLD registry operators to handle similar scenarios, although there are a few extra twists. To start with Nominet is speaking of the entire project in terms of "cost recovery", whereas other registries have used this kind of release as a revenue generator. The other thing which is quite interesting is how they plan to differentiate based on the second level ie. org.uk domains, according to their proposal, should be given to charities and not for profits, while co.uk should go to business users. While this is very logical it's still interesting to note that they've "gone back to basics" in some respects.

You can view full details of what Nominet are planning on their site and share your thoughts.

It will be interesting to see how the Nominet registrars and the public react to this news.

PIR, the registry operator for .org, has relaunched their website.

The new site is currently "beta", though that seems like an odd way to label a public-facing site that has been live for years ..

The area that interests me, of course, is the registrar list .. And I'm not overly impressed with the way it displays..

PIR, the registry operator for .org, has relaunched their website.

The new site is currently "beta", though that seems like an odd way to label a public-facing site that has been live for years ..

The area that interests me, of course, is the registrar list .. And I'm not overly impressed with the way it displays..

SIDN, the registry operator for .nl (Netherlands) have launched their new site.

The new look site gives the registry a complete visual facelift.

You can find it here.

SIDN, the registry operator for .nl (Netherlands) have launched their new site.

The new look site gives the registry a complete visual facelift.

You can find it here.

SIDN, the registry operator for .nl, has announced the introduction of a new service for its registrars. The new phishing alert service harnesses data provided by Netcraft and will automatically email the registrar of record of any .nl domain name that is flagged as being used in a phishing attack.

Every five minutes or so, SIDN checks Netcraft's suspect URL database,
which is constantly being updated. Every time a .nl URL is added to the
database, an e-mail message is automatically sent to the relevant
registrar's administrative contact e-mail address. In other words, the
system does not rely on periodic reporting, but on almost immediate
individualised e-mail contact. It therefore provides a basis for very
rapid intervention. The service is due to enter use on February 15,
2010.

Message content
The e-mail sent to draw a registrar's attention to the fact that a
client is running a website that may be fraudulent will include the
following information:

- Suspected phishing site URL
- Host: the IP address of the system running the website
- Country: the country of origin of the IP address
- Date: the date and time that the suspect site was detected
- Target: the name of the company that seems to be targeted

SIDN are conscious of the danger of such a service and warn registrars that there may be false alarms.

It will be interesting to see how registrars and the wider internet community react to the introduction of this service.

Afilias, which runs .info and provides registry services to a lot of other domains, has acquired the .mobi registry operator - mTLD Ltd.

The acquisition was officially announced on February 11th 2010, with both Afilias and mTLD releasing press releases etc., as well as a message to pass on to any registrants who might be concerned by the acquisition.

Is this good news or bad news?

I'd suspect that it's good news. It's certainly not bad!

It will be interesting to see what, if any, changes Afilias will bring to the .mobi namespace.

You can read the official announcement here

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Nominet has joined the ranks of those registry operators who have embraced the much vaunted and possibly hyped, "social media".

In the last few weeks the UK registry operator has started using two Twitter accounts and its Facebook page to interact with its members (and other interested parties).

Based on member feedback they have also started sending out technical notifications via email to supplement their existing RSS feeds.

On Twitter they are using:

@Nominet - seems to be general Nominet news and interaction
@NominetTech - technical service announcements

You can find their facebook presence here.

Obviously both the Facebook and Twitter presences are accessible to both Nominet members and members of the public, while other fora, such as the private member forum, are not.

Hopefully these new efforts towards public engagement will have a positive impact on the registry.

The Digital Britain report and the legislation which is now before the UK parliament (Digital Economy Bill) makes for very scary reading.

The implications of the legislation are far reaching - and not just within the UK

What about the sections of the legislation that refer to domain registries? Note the plural

There is an entire section of the legislation dedicated to "internet domain registries", which is "nicely" divided into sub-sections:

• Powers in relation to internet domain registries
  
• Appointment of manager of internet domain registry
• Application to court to alter constitution of internet domain registry
  
  

What is worrying is how they "plan" to enact their powers in the case of "registry failure":

"3)  There is a relevant failure in relation to an internet domain registry if --

(a)  the registry, or any of its registrars or end-users, engages in prescribed practices that are unfair or involve the misuse of internet domain names,
or
(b) the arrangements made by the registry for dealing with complaints in connection with internet domain names do not comply with prescribed requirements."

Note the choice of language. Not only is failure deemed to have happened if the registry messes up, but it also gets triggered if a registrar OR a registrant does something that they don't like.

Now if you examine some of the supporting documents that they used while preparing the legislation you are going to be in for a shock.

In common with other pieces of legislation, this one was not drafted overnight. It comes after a long period of supposed planning and research. I say "supposed", as the document covering the "impact assessment" is horrendously misinformed.

Taking just one or two choice paragraphs from that document as examples:

Cyber-squatting - members apply to register domain names which are of economic value to other people and then charge then high prices to buy them.
Drop-catching - members wait until the expiry date for an existing registered domain name has just passed and the exploit the few seconds between the expiry of the registration and the effecting of the original owner's automatic registration in order to snatch the name and then charge for them to buy it back
Phishing - a member uses the domain name that is confusingly similar to another one (usually of a well known brand) in order to dupe members of the public to enter the site.

Why are they referring to "members"? Only Nominet and its members would ever refer to themselves using such terminology.
Does this mean that the British government views all Nominet members as being phishers?
I'd certainly hope not, but their choice of that term is interesting to say the least. I won't even bother addressing their definitions. Suffice to say, the definitions are flawed to the extreme.

If they are basing the concept of failure around those sorts of concepts then it may be time for Nominet registrars to look more closely at .eu!

So let's return to the "registries" once more.

As things stand at present there is more than one "registry" in the UK.
While the biggest and best known of them is obviously Nominet, there is also both Telnic and Centralnic.
While Centralnic's may be best known for domain extensions such as gb.com, it also handles the registry services for .la - Laos or Los Angeles (depending on who you ask!)
Telnic has already expressed its concern at the permutations of such legislation

And what of those organisations that were planning on getting new TLDs? What of the likes of .scot or .cym? Or any other company that was interested in applying for a new TLD with ICANN.
Has the UK government overlooked the fact that ICANN already exists?
Did they consult with ICANN prior to this?

Other parts of the bill, which deal with copyright protection (they're hailing it as progress - any normal person would view it as a denial of their right to fair process.. ) and plenty of other things that will render the UK the most internet unfriendly country in Europe.

Is this the swan song for the failing Labour government in Britain?

Do they want to be remembered for introducing draconian legislation that will effectively force internet companies in the UK to move?

I for one am scared

SIDN, the registry operator for .nl, has announced a timetable for the rollout of EPP.

A test environment will be available in January, with a "go live" scheduled for February 17 2010.

Full details on their site

PIR, which is behind the .org (dotOrg) registry, has issued a call for statements of interest from people interested in joining their board.

According to the announcement on the ISOC site PIR is looking for two directors for the period covering July 2010 to July 2013.

Full details of what they're looking for and the application process may be found here

While the announcement does go into plenty of detail about what is required, it's a bit lacking in terms of compensation details.

Are PIR board members renumerated?

Presumably the expenses associated with travelling to the various meetings are covered, but again, there are no details.

The Swiss ccTLD operator, Switch, has announced the launch of a new company and service called "SwitchPlus".

The new entity is a wholly owned subsidiary of Switch and is aimed at providing a range of services that would, essentially, compete against the registry operator's clientele - namely registrar, hosting providers and IT service companies.

The Swiss operator claims that this move is to protect its staff:

In launching switchplus, SWITCH is also making a key contribution towards securing its own future in the field of internet domains. The contract with the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) for the registration of domain names runs until 2015. It is uncertain whether a follow-on contract will come into being at all - and, if so, what form it will take. This situation constitutes a substantial risk for SWITCH - firstly in terms of its revenues and secondly as regards the jobs of its employees working in this area. For that reason, SWITCH must take steps today already to secure the future of its Internet Domains business.

If I were based in Switzerland I would not be overly impressed by this move.

All registry operators have maintenance windows. In some cases they last a few minutes, while in others they can last a few hours.

But DK Hostmaster has to "take the biscuit".

They're shutting down all operations for a full 24 hours! While existing domains will continue to function as normal, the registry will be closed for all other operations for a full 24 hours.

Is this some new record?

Here's the email they sent out to nameserver managers:

"In connection with an upgrade of the DK Hostmaster systems, a number of
services, including the redelegation option, will shut down for 24 hours.
For further details, see below.

On 30 August 2009, users of the DK Hostmaster website will benefit from an
improved self-service facility. Our website will have a new, user-friendly
design to match the upgraded self-service facility. At the same time, we
will be implementing a new ERP system with new functionality and a new
invoice layout. These initiatives will enable us to introduce new system
functionality to meet user requirements in the future.

Due to the upgrade, it will not be possible to use our systems from
Saturday, 29 August 2009 at 6 am to Sunday, 30 August 2009 at 6 am. The
facilities affected include:

.    Self-service
.    Payments
.    Waiting list
.    Redelegation of .dk domain names

It will still be possible to apply for new .dk domain names. The
applications will be received, time-stamped and given a track number as
usual, but no domain names will be created during this period. The name
service will not be affected, but changes to the DK zone will NOT be
processed."

For a country as advanced as Denmark to have a registry operator like this is truly amazing.
Unfortunately Afilias' bid to takeover the management of the DK registry failed, leaving the incumbent in place.

Nominet's AGM has been announced.

It will take place on Wednesday July 8th in the Hilton London Kensington

Two non-executive director seats are up for grabs...

More information on the AGM is available on the Nominet site

According to a news alert I received last night, Eurid's contract to manage the .eu namespace has been renewed for a further 5 years.

The news, which appears to have either been broken or leaked at the Eurid registrar dinner last night in Mexico city appeared on a French domain news site, but has since vanished.

If anyone can confirm or deny this news it would be helpful

Considering all the "doom and gloom" floating around at the moment, it's nice to see that Nominet have a vacancy.

They're currently seeking applicants for the role of "Director of IT".

Full details on their site.